CFAR Directs Action Learning for the Dubai World Leaders Program

The Dubai World Corporation has experienced rapid change as it grows to become one of the world’s largest holding companies. To support this growth, Dubai World made a commitment to developing the leadership skills of the young Emirate executives taking on management of its business units. Dubai World partnered with The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania to design the Dubai Leaders Program, a custom-made executive education experience structured to enhance the strategic thinking and leadership capabilities of the participants.

CFAR in turn is partnered with Wharton and Dubai World to conduct a needs assessment of the participants and to design and facilitate the Action Learning component of the program. The program began in June with a series of community building sessions in Dubai, where the participants were introduced to the program and began to learn about Wharton's view of the skills and capabilities needed to become a global manager. The Action Learning teams were formed and charged to begin working on relevant business problems that they would tackle with the support and oversight of their executive sponsors.

During the summer of 2006, under the guidance of CFAR's coaches, the teams conducted preliminary research on these business issues and got feedback from their executive sponsors.

They arrived in Philadelphia in late August for their intensive residential program at Wharton, taking classes in management, strategy, global leadership, finance, and marketing. CFAR continued to work with the teams on their Action Learning projects, and on the skills of research, planning, teamwork, and project management. The teams produced a presentation outlining their projects and their potential impact on the Dubai World businesses, presented these to faculty for feedback, and pitched their ideas (via conference call) to their executive sponsors back home in Dubai.

During Phase Two of the Action Learning program the teams refined the project plans, and began to execute them, achieving a set of agreed-upon milestones, including interim deliverables. They worked with our support throughout this phase with regular check-ins with their sponsors.

In the final phase, the teams will prepare for and present their work and recommendations to their executive sponsors in Dubai, coinciding with the completion of the Dubai Leaders Program.

The outcome of all this effort will be a series of projects with the potential for real business impact for Dubai World’s companies, and the acquisition of a set of skills and capabilities for the participants that allows them to take their formal learning and apply it through real project work.

 

For more information:

Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania’s press release about this program.

Dubai World’s Dubai Leaders Program website

Dubai World corporate site.