The MicroMBA at BCGE

Governance

The BCGE’s MicroMBA: a revealer of talent and a guarantee of continuity

In 2005, BCGE set up a tailor-made training programme designed to reveal the potential of its employees and give them the opportunity to climb the ranks, regardless of their initial education. Over the past 15 years, this talent development strategy has made it possible to bring to fruition many innovative projects for the benefit of the bank and its clients. By Marie-Christine Lang

A focus on people and innovation

This original training scheme, designed in 2004, is based on two complementary pillars: the Swiss Army’s Transfer programme, which provides crisis-management training (see box), and the BCGE MicroMBA. Conceived around the bank’s needs, the latter was designed and coached by Professor Raphaël H. Cohen, who is also the creator and academic director of the entrepreneurial leadership specialisation of the EMBA (Executive MBA) at the University of Geneva.

The Swiss Army’s Transfer programme is a four-stage “crisis management” training course delivered over six years.

Stages 1 and 2 are delivered by MIKA, the Army’s senior leadership training centre (management, information and communication), on the basis of two modules of four days each, in Lucerne: Standard Transfer (acquisition of the method) and Transfer Management (implementation of the method in a crisis situation).

Stages 3 and 4 are BCGE-specific and were developed with the company Stratgart (strategic exercises and executive training) on the basis of two modules of two days each: Military Stress Test 1 and 2, rehearsal exercises specifically developed for BCGE by Erick Labar.

To date, 120 employees have completed the core course; 36 took part in the assessment exercise (Qualified Transfer Challenge developed by Stratgart in collaboration with the BCGE laboratory), 16 of whom received the BCGE Swiss Army Award; 24 also obtained the BCGE MicroMBA diploma.

A crisis simulator for life-size training

In February 2020, the bank’s executives met for several days at the General Staff School in Kriens, Lucerne, in order to make use of the infrastructures and the support expertise of the Swiss Army. Over several days and through various practical cases, teams formed for the occasion were thus trained in crisis management and, in particular, carried out periodic testing of BCGE’s continuity plan.

While the teams worked in the traditional way (Transfer method dashboards and geopolitical maps), their decisions were simultaneously entered into the Kriens simulator by Army specialists. The aim was to measure their ability to assess the unfolding of events correctly. This tailor-made exercise, on a large scale, was the first of its kind organised by the General Staff School for a private company. The resources made available and the personnel mobilised by the Army for the success of this life-size training exercise were greatly appreciated by the bank.

Raphaël Cohen teaches technical skills such as innovation, project management, marketing and process management, but not only those. He also highlights relational skills, such as benevolent and fair leadership, emotional intelligence, stakeholder management and change leadership. Acquiring these relational skills is essential in team management and enables better day-to-day collaboration for everyone’s benefit.

An audacious and… profitable approach

According to studies, innovative ideas come from 40% of employees. In light of this finding, the BCGE MicroMBA is based on a bold approach, a true talent revealer more relevant than academic examinations. Participants are organised into groups of four or five people from different roles and functions, and are tasked with identifying an innovative project supporting the bank’s strategy, convincing management to adopt it, and then implementing it.

In addition to acquiring new skills, participants thus become proactive players able to seize opportunities, a decisive advantage for the success of their company and its clients. Cutting-edge ideas are born from this novel approach, such as the electronic safe deposit box, for example (bcge.ch/fr/esafe).

A decisive agility

Thanks to this programme, which requires resilience and stress-management abilities, employees develop an agility that prepares them to face and derive the best from a VUCA world (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous), of which the crisis linked to the Coronavirus is a recent example.

This agility significantly increases the bank’s responsiveness and thus constitutes the best guarantee for ensuring the continuity of an institution concerned with anticipating the needs of its clients.

Based on collaboration between the bank’s different areas of activity, this scheme also helps to break down silos within the bank, making its operation more fluid.

BCGE’s management is particularly satisfied to kill two birds with one stone: first, by making the acquisition of competitive advantages possible through MicroMBA-driven innovations, and second, by helping to develop its high-potential talent pool. Half of BCGE’s division directors now come from executives who followed this programme and were able to climb the ranks, regardless of their initial education. All the women on BCGE’s executive committee, as well as the Director of Human Resources, have benefited from this scheme, as have many employees who now hold positions of responsibility.

Emulators in French-speaking Switzerland

The BCGE MicroMBA has made disciples in French-speaking Switzerland. Participants in this training course were behind several remarkable innovations for their employer. There is also an inter-company version of the programme, developed by Romandie Formation, which enables motivated executives from any organisation, particularly SMEs, to acquire these decisive skills for their career and their employer’s success.