THE CHALLENGE

A major global organisation was repositioning its technology and digital services function, moving it from operational support to strategic enabler. The leaders running that function were being asked to make a corresponding shift: from managing technology and process to driving business transformation and operating credibly at the interface between function and strategy.

The standard response would have been short courses, leadership skills here, digital capability there, commercial awareness somewhere else. Disconnected, episodic, and unlikely to survive the return to work. What the organisation needed was something integrated: a programme that held leadership development and commercial acumen together, because the role now required both simultaneously and the gap between them was part of the problem.

THE PROGRAMME

The Horizon — a six-month cohort-based leadership development programme for experienced leaders navigating complex organisational change — was delivered across two cohorts spanning Asia Pacific, Africa, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas. A genuinely complex delivery context requiring the programme to work across geographies, cultures and time zones without losing coherence.

The programme ran on two tracks simultaneously. The leadership track developed the capabilities that complex change actually requires: leading through uncertainty, building influence across business stakeholders, and thinking strategically when the strategy itself is still emerging. The commercial track grounded that development in the real business challenge the cohort was navigating, using design thinking and innovation frameworks to develop the acumen to lead transformation, not just survive it.

These tracks weren’t run separately. They were woven together throughout, so participants developed the capacity to hold both simultaneously — which is precisely what the repositioning of their function required.

Between masterclasses, participants worked in small peer groups facilitated by professional coaches, and completed individual leadership challenges drawn from their own roles. The programme culminated in a graduation event where groups pitched transformation proposals to a senior panel, ideas developed collaboratively and connected directly to the business challenge that brought the cohort together.

Pre- and post-programme 360-degree assessment measured behavioural change before and after, not just participant sentiment at the end.

THE OUTCOMES

Growth was observed across 10 of 12 leadership competencies measured by pre- and post-programme 360-degree assessment. The strongest gains were in the capabilities most critical to the repositioning challenge: