Building Better Partnerships with the Business
The Relationship Manager Professional Development Program recognizes that a successful Relationship Manager is much more than an 'order taker' of requests coming from the business. People who excel in this role are 'demand shapers' and can work with their business partners to shape and mold the demand for services.
This highly-popular program begins with an assessment designed to ensure the content aligns with each participant's needs. Components of the program include strategic partnering, portfolio management, change management, business IQ, process thinking, and effective communication. Managers who complete this program will walk away with an educational experience tailored to their specific needs and action plans to enhance their business relationships and implement in their day-to-day work endeavors.
Who Should Participate
This program is designed for teams of 3-7 individuals who have business facing roles in your organization: Relationship Managers, Program Managers, Account Managers, and Client Liaisons.
Designed primarily for leaders who are responsible for managing the partnership between IT and the business units
Multiple attendees from single organizations reinforce learning across the IT management team.
Proven Insights on IT Leadership
All our work is leveraged by original in-house research in which renowned thought leaders from academia and industry join us in exploration of critical business issues to articulate future best practices and set leading-edge directions. The combination of our experienced senior staff and continual emersion in this on-going flow of ideas and insights, ensures exceptional value for our clients - all our work is fast-paced and well-informed. We strive to spark our clients' attention, kindle their understanding, and ignite a shared desire.
Our staff has developed many of the important management techniques related to information technology and the leadership of the IT function of the last two decades. This extraordinary body of research has resulted a number of indispensable tools and resources that are reflected in our programs today.
The Business Challenge
Today IT leaders not only need exceptional technical competence, but they also have to demonstrate business savvy. Building a successful partnership with the business requires a diverse set of skills and capabilities. At the executive level of the business, the CIO is responsible and held accountable for the relationship between IT and the rest of the corporation. However, the day-to-day interface with business units and suppliers is done by managers throughout the IT organization. Many CIOs find that these relationship managers, who sit at the intersection of IT and the business, need additional development to polish their management skills. They need to build competence in strategic partnering, portfolio management, change management, process thinking, effective communication, and general business IQ.
Program Features
The RM PDP provides a unique development experience for leaders in the relationship manager role through an intensive, modular, blended-delivery program over the course of four months.
Program features include:- A personal assessment of the individual's leadership strengths and weaknesses, using our Relationship Manager Competency Model (link).
- A personal curriculum designed specifically to reach each participant with assignments chosen based on the results of the assessment.
- Two workshops and three teleconferences, each focused on specific knowledge, skills, attributes, and values required to be a successful IT leader.
- A capstone project designed to create part of a strategic relationship management plan for each participant.
- Access to high-quality, online, management development and performance support material offered by Harvard Business School Publishing.
Program Leaders
The program Directors are Barbara McGill and Joe Grochowski.
Barbara has developed and managed numerous large custom executive education programs for Fortune 500 companies including programs on Business Acumen for HR executives and the RM PDP. Barbara earned her B.A. from Colgate University and her M.B.A. from Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration.
Joe's responsibilities include course design and development and overseeing the program's overall operations. Joe has extensive research and executive education experience having worked with a number of senior IT executives from the Fortune 500. Joe holds a B.S. in Psychology from Penn State University and a Master's degree in the Social Sciences from the University of Chicago.
Anne Bishko is the program coordinator.
Featured Instructors
We are delighted to feature the following instructors in the 2008 program:
Frank Capek
- has over 20 years of executive and consulting experience and has developed leading-edge approaches to customer experience mapping and innovation, customer performance management and demand chain strategy.
Tammy Erickson - a McKinsey Award-winning author and widely respected expert on the changing workforce - on the shifting relationship between individuals and organizations - and on enhancing workforce productivity. Tammy's weekly blog "Across the Ages" is featured on HBSP Online.
Vaughan Merlyn
Chris O'Leary - Chris has spent the last 20 years driving change and improvement in critical customer-facing processes. Using an approach that combines leading edge insight with practical, real world, experience, Chris helps firms consistently deliver a superior customer experience and embed that discipline in their sales, account management and customer loyalty management processes.
Deepak Ramachandran
Andy Shimberg - brings over 15 years of IT management experience, both as an executive in building IT service firms, and an expert in building first class service organizations leveraging the proper blend of operations management performance discipline with effective services marketing.
Nick Vitalari - Dr. Vitalari's work focuses on how people solve complex problems, how technology enables extraordinary corporate strategies, and the changing nature of sustainable corporate growth. Nick is an educator, author and advisor to the Global 1000.
Peter Weill
The 2008 Program
This program is designed for group participation. Each class is limited to 50 participants - typically, 10 teams of five participants each. Our next RM PDP begins in September 2008 with a personal competency assessment. The sessions will be run at the Babson Executive Conference Center in Wellesley, Massachusetts located on the campus of Babson College.
- Workshop 1: October 5-7, 2008
- Workshop 2: November 16-18, 2008
Join Us Today!
For more information, email us at educationinfo@ngenera.com.