Going Global
Glen Orsak and the Telfer Centre for Executive Leadership engage a client in the biggest market of all.
What’s the best way to go global? At the Telfer Centre for Executive Leadership, we listen to our prospective clients, find out their problems or needs, and then figure out how to deliver the right learning and development solutions for them. This straightforward business approach works for our clients and for us. We offer professional-development programs to a range of organizations in the public, private and health sectors for senior leaders and executives in these organizations. Our programs equip these executives with skills, insights and knowledge that they can use to carry out what we call the practice of leadership. We’ve developed a solid reputation in Canada for delivering customized programming that our clients need to meet their organizational goals.
The good word is spreading. In late 2015, we delivered a three-day management and leadership program to the senior executive team of the Dubai Financial Services Authority. This organization regulates banks and other financial institutions in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). The DIFC is unlike any other place in the world. It’s a flourishing 110-acre financial and business hub whose corporate, commercial, civil, employment and securities laws correspond with international standards. This free-zone setup makes it possible for businesses to operate under a common law framework as they access emerging markets in the Middle East, North Africa and Southern Asia.
Here’s where our approach to global engagement comes in. We listened closely to representatives of the Dubai Financial Services Authority; found out exactly what this specialized public-sector institution believed it needed and why; and then built a focused learning program that enabled executive team members to acquire exactly the insights and skills they were seeking. We believe that to help prospective international clients develop their people to reach their fullest potential, we must engage their leaders and employees, understand their context and goals clearly, and then work hard to create programs and interventions that help their people achieve their objectives. It’s a client-first approach and, we believe, a critical part of going global.
Banner photo by Glen Orsak Photography
