CASE STUDY
Building capabilities for long-term cultural change
Telefonica S.A.
Background
Telefónica is a Spanish, multinational broadband and telecommunications provider with operations in Europe; Asia; and North, Central, and South America. It is one of the largest telephone operators and providers in the world. Telefónica contracted with us to create a programme to build capabilities to effect long-term cultural change.
Challenge
Telefónica set out to align its leaders and organisational culture with its key strategic initiatives:
- To lead the digital future
- To turn customers into fans
- To create a great place to work
To this end, Oxford Leadership collaborated with Telefónica to support the company in its cross-border, leadership transformation processes through our Strategic Cultural Change Programme.
Objectives
The primary objectives of this project were to improve leaders’ ability to:
- Influence change from the inside out
- Manage complexity and ambiguity, and develop the skills to lead others through turbulent times
- Build a sense of community, trust, belonging, and openness across all areas of the company
- Discover a deeper sense of purpose and meaning in their work
Solution
To meet the company’s objectives, we customised core Oxford Leadership programmes—Self-Managing Leadership, Leading High-Performing Teams, and Strategic Focusing—for Telefónica’s Corporate University to deliver these Programmes on a global scale. The solution included a special Facilitators’ Certification Training for Telefónica managers that supported the delivery of these programmes and cascaded them throughout the organisation.
Results
To date, more than 2000 Telefónica leaders from 18 countries (including Germany, Czech Republic, Ireland, Slovakia, UK, Spain, and USA) have completed the Self-Managing Leadership Programme, with more members of the leadership team on the waiting list for upcoming programmes. Over 600 top Telefónica leaders have attended the Leading High-Performing Teams and Strategic Focusing trainings, with more programmes and Leadership Journeys scheduled.
Lack of power is a great excuse for failure, but sufficient power is never a necessary condition of leadership. There is never sufficient power. In fact, it is success in the absence of sufficient power that defines leadership.