Developing Nestlé’s Future Leaders

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The Nestlé Leadership Programme launched in December 2005 and is the longest running programme at London Business School. Each cohort takes 25-40 senior leaders and puts them through an intense, practically focussed learning journey, enabling them to make a step-change in their leadership abilities. The six-month long programme has three phases. The first is a thorough assessment of the participant, combining 360° feedback with one-on-one coaching conversations. This is followed by a concentrated three and half intensive days face-to-face at Nestlé’s international training centre, which brings together the latest evidence-based research with intensive group coaching. This then sets up the third phase, where participants implement what they’ve learnt and further develop their leadership, using Peer Development Action Learning groups, which stay linked for years. The programme is now recognised as integral to leadership development within Nestlé and has earned a consistent Net Promoter Score of 96%. The 250th cohort will assemble in November 2024.

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225 Cohorts since 2005

7158 programme participants

“The training gives clear understanding of your strong and weak points, gives an opportunity to look much wider at open questions for you to go and dig deeper.”

Nestlé participant

The Challenge

In 2003, Nestlé vice-chairman and CEO Peter Brabeck-Letmathe recognised that for Nestlé to continue to evolve it must have a cadre of leaders who could tackle the challenges of the future. These are not solely business challenges, such as fast-changing consumer behaviours or unforeseen supply but also, as the world’s largest food company, global ones like geopolitical uncertainty and climate change.

Nestlé partnered with London Business School to develop a programme that prepares senior managers for the evolving and unpredictable challenges that a global business face. The aim is not to produce cookie-cutter leaders, but rather to help individuals be themselves, and work with the grain of nearly 160 years of Nestlé culture, to take the business to the next level. In the motto of the programme, participants learn to be themselves, but with more skill.

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“Precious opportunity for me to learn and reflect leadership with global members. So inspired and influenced.”

Nestlé participant

The Approach

In 2005 an extensive Leadership Development Framework together with a 360 assessment was developed to enable managers to get more accurate feedback on their current leadership.

To develop leaders, you need to know what their current leadership is like. Leaders are assayed against the Nestlé Leadership Framework supported by the 360° assessment. This serves as a guide for journey of self-discovery, facilitated by coaches and faculty, helping participants build upon their strengths and identify areas they may need to improve. This tailored approach helps them build a broader range of leadership skills, so that they can lead effectively by deploying the appropriate approach at a particular time.

The Nestlé Leadership Programme looks to develop the leadership capacity and capability of participants, producing a cadre of curious, courageous, and effective leaders who can drive change as well as shape, promote and implement Nestlé’s strategy.

It is no static programme, and a significant redesign of the whole programme took place during 2021 and 2022. Since 2023 Nestlé and the LBS have adopted a significant continuous improvement mindset which has led even more revisions to the Nestlé Leadership Programme.

The Nestlé Leadership Framework and the 360-assessment tool was again refreshed during 2023/2024. This latest refresh of the Framework gives a very clear direction for the current People Strategy which has at its heart is about Inspiring, Disruptive and Inclusive Leadership. These are leaders who inspire and develop their people, enable accountability, adaptability and risk taking and relentlessly build diverse and agile teams, aims that are picked up and fostered through the programme.

The 360-assessment tool, the Nestlé Leadership Framework, and the programme itself, have developed over time as the needs of the business and leadership thinking has evolved. The central tenets, however, remain unchanged. That Nestlé needs to be effectively led, that leadership matters, and that skilled leaders select and applying the appropriate response to a specific situation, whilst still remaining true to themselves. Moreover, the tight-knit groups created on the programme allow participants can support one another after the programme has ended, continuing to develop and adapt their leadership for the rest of their careers.

“An inspiring, thought provoking and motivating Programme that has brought out the best in me and made me feel very positive about the next steps.”

Nestlé participant

Implementation

So what does the programme look like?

Senior leaders sign up for the programme which serves as the starting point for an information gathering phase, where they ask colleagues to fill in the 360 assessment. They then attend an online Engage and Connect session for all participants in that cohort. This is followed by their initial one-to-one meetings with their coaches as well as working with their managers to identify what they want to get out of the programme

This initial diagnostic phase is followed by a three and a half day face-to-face event, at the Nestlé International Center of Learning and Inspiration in Switzerland. This brings together the latest thinking on leadership with intensive group coaching sessions which help participants contextualise the learning to their specific needs.

At its core, leaders need to be able to accurately sense the environment they are in (sensing). Interpret this environmental information appropriately (sensemaking). And then transmit that sense to their followers (sensegiving). These principles have remained unchanging since 2005. What has changed, of course, is our understanding of how to do these things. World events and changing economic environments mean that context is constantly shifting. Advances in leadership and management research mean that best practice is constantly evolving.

The programme does not end, however, when everyone goes back to their day jobs. During the face-to-face phase, participants make bold commitments to their future development. This is then followed up by a combination of one-on-one meetings with their coaches and group meetings with their coaching groups, who form a Peer Development Action Learning groups to support the participants into the future, often long after the programme has ended.

Ultimately the whole six-month programme aims to answer a simple yet daunting question, posed by LBS colleagues back in 2005: ‘Why should anyone be led by you?’ There is, of course, no single answer to this question, but rather each leader must make their case based on their own personality and leadership style. Furthermore, they must make the case in the complexity and speed of the real world, whilst trying to do their day jobs.

Impact

“I have taken many training opportunities during my tenure at Nestle. This is by far... the best I have experienced!! So many ideas and concepts provided to enhance my leadership skills or think about things through a different lens. My favourite was that many of the concepts had a framework in place to actually leverage and apply once back in the business.”

Nestlé participant

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Of course, Nestlé’s future didn’t start twenty years ago. It starts anew every day. The Nestlé Leadership Programme has helped thousands of Nestlé employees develop their leadership. The programme is highly rated, with Net Promotor Scores averaging between 95 and 100 over the last year and programme ratings a steady 4.9 out of 5 – or above.

Participation in the programme is widely seen as a stepping stone towards more senior roles within Nestlé, with previous participants heading up major businesses and functions within the organisation.

The long-standing partnership with London Business School means that the programme is an exemplar of co-production, where both parties work contribute to a tailored programme which evolves constantly to produce the leaders that Nestlé needs.