We decided to create an executive education partnership between a number of like-minded international companies who were business peers and had equal sophistication and maturity in their ideas about leadership development. We wanted corporations similar in size and scope to Boeing, with solid financial performance and a global presence. These businesses should come from diverse regions of the world, represent multiple industry segments, and should not represent significant parts of each others' value streams. We wanted to work together with them to jointly create and deliver an exceptional global leadership development experience for all of our high-potential senior executives. This was a new idea, but the challenge required it.

The next step was to identify potential partners and sell the idea. Each partner would have a representative serving on the steering committee. We picked entered into conversations with ABN-Amro Bank, a large banking institution headquartered in The Netherlands; Asea Brown Boveri (ABB), a strong Swiss based industrial process-engineering, consulting, and supply firm; and Broken Hill Proprietary (BHP), an Australian-based mining and minerals company. All three were well-established international firms that were, like Boeing, growing through mergers and acquisitions. And, all were interested in having senior executives develop far more global savvy. We also had the insight to know that starting small was critical to success.

The steering committee consisted of Brigitte Jonkers from ABB, Robert van der Vein from ABN Amro Bank, Pierre Guillon from BHP, and I represented Boeing. Yury Dr. Boshyk was on asked to join the committee representing Global Executive Learning and serving as the consortium's executive director. In addition to support of the overall goals and strategy, this team agreed on a number of basic parameters. We agreed to share costs and hosting responsibilities. We agreed that each would send six to eight participants selected from the ""high potential" (those currently on succession plans)" individuals currently operating at the executive level within each participating company. We also understood that to be successful; these participants must be high level peers. We agreed to participate actively in all design, delivery and implementation of events. And, as we tried to create the best of all possible experiences for global leadership development, we agreed that action learning was the only way to go.

Our goals for the program were to provide a global learning experience and maximize the benefit to the company, and the success of the first year of the International Consortium Program was felt far beyond the individual development of the executives who participated. Each leader went back and communicated new understandings and shared new knowledge and contacts. And the company teams presented the project plans they had generated through this six months of work to their respective executive Councils. If these Councils accept the plans, implementation follows. And that was the case with the Boeing team's plan. The executive most interested in the business results of their task, Scott Griffin, testified to the value of focusing this diverse, intelligent and talented group of senior executives on a common business problem: "The assignment was to look at what the industry is doing in the 'Collaboration' space, and to make recommendations on how Boeing should proceed. Collaboration refers to the ability of virtual teams, with members scattered all around the global enterprise, to work together as if they are in the same room. Collaboration tools range from simple solutions such as WebEx, all the way to complex solutions that allow engineers to do concurrent design on 3D solid models.
"The team came back with a recommendation to consolidate the many collaboration projects underway around Boeing into one project which would address the simple and complex collaboration needs of the Boeing global enterprise. It was assigned to Dave Swain, our Chief Technical Officer, and Scott Griffin, our Chief Information Officer. Matt Symmonds of Phantom Works was named project manager, reporting to Griffin. This project is helping to carry the Collaboration lessons learned from Future Combat Systems to new programs such as the 7E7, and is in the process of creating an enterprise collaboration space for use by new programs to test collaboration solutions. The work done by the first International Consortium project team was the launching pad for this very important enterprise project."
I did have faith that at the end of the six months there would be 27 executives with a much stronger working definition of what it takes to run a successful global business and with a powerful network of new friends to help them. There would also be four companies with a better understanding of global opportunities, as well as a clear view of e-business opportunities. It certainly seemed to pan outmy faith was justified.

The Program Continues
Success breeds success, and I think we all see that the program has only increased in effectiveness, despite the many internal and external challenges we've encountered. The Steering Committee has been the heart and soul of this program. I see it sort ofsomewhat like a marriage but one without any type of legal contract. We developed a charter, but its real strength lies in the members' personal pledges to work together, communicating openly and honestly, supporting the Program through thick and thin, and devoting the energy and resources necessary to its growth and success. Trust and teamwork were the essential ingredients. We spent many hours together developing plans, strategies, and just getting to know one another. And there were significant external challenges to all of the partner companies as the economy turned sour and 9/11 pulled the bottom out for many of us. But the Program not only weathered these storms, we were able to make use of them to deepen the learning in the Consortium, and to make use of the Program to help all of us survive these trials. The program theme for 2002 was "Exploring Business Opportunities for Growth and Leadership in Challenging (Difficult) Times." It fit the times for everyone. And in 2003 it isis the themes are "Creating the Future" and "Developing Market Driving Organizations." Maybe we're all feeling more optimistic. In these follow-on years as the central themes and tasks have changed, so has our makeup. In addition to BHP merging with Billiton to form the new BHP Billiton and ABB selecting a new CEO and executive team, we've invited new company partners on board. The Benfield Group, a re-insurance company in London; the Standard Bank of South Africa, ; and most recently the Tata Group of India, joined our partnership. Each company brings whole worlds of new experience, talent, perspectives and connections, but we on the Steering Committee have kept to our original standards and agreements. We take care never to let the partnership or the class size get unwieldy, and I think the Committee relationships are increasingly close and rich, and the class dynamics and quality of participant interactions are keener and deeper. The continuing care we put into the program design and participant selection has only increased the success generated by the International Consortium.

Mary Armstrong, Vice President/General Manager of Aircraft Systems and Interiors in Boeing's Commercial Airplane Group, participated in the second class, held August to December of 2002. She said, "The best part of the program for me was interacting with the other companies' executives on their turf. I felt as though I had led a pretty sheltered life as a Boeing executive because they had a much better understanding of the US than I had of their home countries. I gained a new perspective of how 'small' the world really is, and how much more I need to learn about other parts of the world. The program really helped me connect with the global aspects of business today, and I left with an urgent desire to help Boeing gain a more thorough global perspective. We are not where we need to be right now. We need to come up to speed, fast, if we are going to take advantage of all the opportunities out there."

Michael Denton, Vice President of Engineering for Airplane Programs, also in the Commercial Airplane group, took part in the third course. Their team assignment was to work on the application of network centric concepts to Boeing internal operations. He was equally enthusiastic: "When I was nominated for the program I was told that this class would give me a more global perspective, while introducing me to people from other companies around the world. The networking opportunities with them would increase my perspective of how regional conditions in different parts of the world influence those companies, and how they respond to those challenges.
"I found that the class was everything I had been promised and more. WeThe participants spent a week in Switzerland, a week in the United States (at our leadership center in St Louis) and a week in South Africa. At each venue we got fantastic exposure to economists, business leaders (from the participating companies as well as others), and other speakers. We got a fantastic immersion into current economic and political pressures that are shaping our world - giving us a perspective on the challenges facing our respective companies, as well as the opportunities. We also gained a much greater cultural understanding of the host countries that we visited, which I found to be a fabulous personal learning experience in itself.
"Along the way, all of the participants worked on assignments that had been given by senior leadership of our respective companies. These assignments have helped to reinforce our learning while also enabling us to learn even more about our own companies. At Boeing this is a tremendous opportunity as our team was comprised of individuals from across the enterprise. We networked, learned about our respective businesses, and developed friendships that will last through the years ahead.
"All in all, a great class. I count myself lucky to have participated!"
Two other participants in the third course echoed Michael's thoughts and added some of their own. Norm Bartlett, Vice President of People and Employee Services with the Shared Services Group, said the course was "masterfully designed" to produce learning on a number of levels. On the personal level, Norm said the experience "fundamentally re-engineered my thinking." When he looks at issues now, he recognizes numbers of different solutions and that he might not be asking the right questions. Now he sits back and asks "how would others look at this?" He sees this as a real power that leads to real business results. On the Boeing interpersonal level, Norm discovered five "incredible" Boeing colleagues and has learned about them and about the company from the intense work they've done together. On the international level, Norm was struck by the commonality of not only business goals, but core values among all of the international participants and contacts. He noted that all companies had common people issues and goals: better communication, how to develop their people, creating a high-energy motivated workforce. He discovered that the theme of network centric operations is of keen interest to many international companies, and compared to some, we have work to do. Our ability to adapt and change isn't rapid enough. He noted that Nokia in Helsinki has reached a place where the workforce panics if things aren't changing; "Think about how fundamentally different this is!" He also observed that although Boeing's name is held in high regard around the world, we must be careful not to impose our solutions from without. "You've got to learn to work within the culture; you can't assume the same benefits that we would see here would happen somewhere else." OHe said that other countries are much more knowledgeable about us than we are about them, partly because every economic act of the U.S. has a profound effect on their economies.
Many of Norm's words resonated with the profundity of his experience, particularly in South Africa. He found it extremely humbling to visit a continent that is "largely disregarded," where "40 to 60 per cent of the population is AIDS infected," where he looked into the eyes of the people and wondered how life can be sustained. The visit to the Soweto Township, the Black township in Johannesburg where the fight against Apartheid centered, generated in him real awe as he recognized what they have achieved against incredible odds. And he observed that the challenges they face today dwarf any that we might face. They are trying to create order and structure in an environment of disorder and distrust, and "a few years ago they were blatantly discriminated against." He observed that their challenges make ours seem very doable; "What should we be able to do with all these resources? We're spoiled!"
Norm credited the depth of learning to several factors. The stature and quality of the speakers was "amazing." He said that several were Nobel Prize winners, and in South Africa, two of the speakers were heavily involved with the abolition of Apartheid and the development of the new South African government: "It was like having George Washington and Thomas Jefferson come in and speak to us." He suggested that spreading the sessions out over months rather than compacting the course had a huge effect on how the learning was internalized and on the relationships developed. And the relationships themselves he finds life-long and life-changing. The six Boeing participants have formed friendships far deeper than most long-term professional associations, and as we talked, he received an e-mail from a Benfield participant in London who will be spending time with Norm's family in the near future.

John Tracy, Vice President of Structural Technologies, Prototyping and Quality in Phantom Works, said the ICP was the "most intense learning experience" he's ever had, and he's had many. He thought the immersion in different geographical locations around the world helped him develop the ability to see issues, problems, and solutions from perspectives he wouldn't otherwise consider. John focused on the leader's role in making change, and examined the leadership task through that lens. He said the Boeing team looked carefully at how network centric operations would change the ways in which information is shared and decisions are made. Decision-making is pushed downward, occurring where people have the best information to make them, which can be at any and all levels of the organization. So technology change is not the issue; culture change is. How do we train people to be comfortable with decisions being made at lower levels? John found the breadth of thinking offered by "brilliant people from all over the world" and from other industries invaluable to the project, but also to his own future leadership. He developed a "network of people throughout the world" that he can leverage throughout his career, and also made "great friends."