Leadership Pipeline

The Leadership Pipeline was launched in 2006 under the People Development Department to address specifically the Corporation's long-term manpower and succession needs. It is apparent from current staffing trends that second- and third-tier leaders must be in place within the next five to ten years for effective management succession. This programme fast tracks our objective of growing future leaders with a general management flair combined with specialist training.

Because we are working with individual employees who have different learning needs, the Pipeline applies a personalised approach to career guidance. A wide range of opportunities and solutions to furthering goals, such as cross-functional or external market job postings, allow promising talent to develop in areas that encourage management excellence as well as personal growth.

The strategy behind the Pipeline is driven by a set of unique strengths, among them an integrated approach that aligns closely with our business strategy and the long-term sustainability of the organisation, a personalised range in learning solutions for identified talent and the executive director level commitment to programme implementation. The Pipeline has also led to a restructuring of the Corporation's Graduate Trainee Recruitment scheme. Different to the traditional focus on functional requirements, we now have no prerequisite for skills streams, but rather concentrate on the potential to work with the Corporation's culture and the demonstration of promising leadership qualities. Our recruitment drive now includes careers fairs for graduates and internationally sourced qualified professionals. In the coming year, the challenge for fresh graduate recruitment is to field appropriate candidates from mainland China who demonstrate the long-term commitment we seek.

With this substantial shift in human-resources strategy, we expect results at various levels of the organisation. Principally, at senior levels, performance is expected from day one, thus demanding a steep learning curve for qualifying individuals. For graduate trainees, a range of 10-15 years is expected for senior-level achievement. In its first 12 months of implementation, some 65 managers are being groomed under the programme.