Capstone – Project
Financial “Return on Leadership Investment” Model
A Collaboration Between
Westwood International designs and delivers leadership programming to empower individuals and organizations to bring about enduring positive change. With clientele ranging from companies and executives listed among the top Fortune 500 to boutique firms and aspiring professionals, Westwood International has demonstrated their unique value to advancing leadership goals for individuals and organizations in a range of industries across a multinational landscape, including but not limited to health care, pharmaceuticals, law enforcement, energy, and automotive production. A recent collaboration between Indiggo and Fortune Magazine produced a groundbreaking metric for measuring return-on-leadership, one that will have tremendous impact on the way leadership programming from conceptualization and design to delivery and evaluation. Based upon their analysis using the trademarked ROL model, seven of Westwood International’s clients are ranked among the top 30 companies based upon the return on leadership. What are the metrics included in the model and how are they predicted to perform? As with any theoretical model, there is room for development and refinement; what other factors and relationships may be operating to influence leadership outcomes that are not captured in the Indiggo model? Are there competing theories or propositions to those incorporated in the model? What will further research reveal about the next steps in the development of models for predicting and measuring return on leadership? In the highly competitive, dynamic landscape of leadership development, Westwood International aims to further develop their tools and portfolio, differentiate from competitors, offer customers a unique value proposition by developing their own model for modeling return on leadership based upon the latest research in the science of leadership and relevant disciplines.
Project Topics
Product Design & Development
Research & Development
Company Information
| Company | Westwood International |
| HQ | Stowe, VT |
| Revenue | Unlisted |
| Employees | Unlisted |
| Stage | Pre-Revenue Startup |
| Hiring Potential | N/A |
| Website | http://www.westwoodintl.com/ |
Company Overview
With over 25 years in the industry, Westwood International developed into a consulting collaborative that reimagined what it means to lead wisely in a global age. They develop leaders who are wise inside and smart outside through human-centered programming that emphasizes emotional intelligence and fosters community, all while tackling real business challenges. Westwood's signature, global-scale, action learning programs, and change management initiatives have energized the vision of global brands like Volvo, The Singapore Police Force, ConMed, General Electric, and Cochlear, Boston college, J&J, among others.
Experiential Learning Program Details
| School | Dr. D Y Patil B School (DPU) |
| Engagement Format | - |
| Course | DPU Student Consulting Experience |
| Level |
|
| Students Enrolled | 127 |
| Meeting Day & Time | TBD |
| Student Time Commitment | 8-15 Hours Per Week |
| Company Time Commitment | 2 Hours |
| Duration | 7.14 Weeks |
Program Timeline
Key Project Milestones
-
August 3, 2021 - Deep Dive Into Westwood International
- Become familiar with the company’s mission, core competencies, and current portfolio and product offerings.
- How does the company categorize and organize their products?
- What is their value proposition?
- Who are the key stakeholders?
- Who is the target audience? What problem does the company help their customers solve? What needs are met?
- What are the company’s goals?
Suggested Deliverable:
Internal Report
-
August 18, 2021 - Develop an understanding of the concept of Return on Leadership and Gather Inputs for Analysis
- Get up-to-speed on the ROL algorithm, its purpose, assumptions, development, and testing
- Dive into the scholarship. What does the research in top-tier scholarly journals and trade publications reveal about:
- Assumptions and approaches to modeling return on leadership?
- Theoretical and methodological developments on leadership and its qualitative and quantitative impacts on individuals and groups?
- Unraveling or clarifying interactive effects and other complexities of relevant relationships?
- What new factors, direct and indirect relationships do you discover? How are effects quantified and operationalized?
- The populations that have been studied?
- Moving beyond the scholarship on leadership:
- How are the inputs on leadership comparable to those for other forms of social capital in the workplace?
- Are there models for predicting how these operate? That estimate the costs and benefits to investing in these forms social capital?
- Are there insights from this body of research that can be inferred to the current project?
Suggested Deliverable:
Research Report & Presentation
-
September 1, 2021 - Identify opportunities for refining models for predicting return on leadership investment
- Based upon your research, what are the strengths and limitations of the way in which key inputs into such a model are defined? Measured?
- Are there populations or sub-populations that have been understudied? What are the implications for predictive models based upon data that exclude these groups?
- Are there theoretical models, or integration of models, you think would be better suited? Why?
- What criteria will you use to evaluate the fitness of the framework (e.g. parsimony, logic, etc.)? What about theory integration?
- Are there variables that, if added, could make for a more
- accurate model?
- comprehensive model?
- parsimonious model?
Suggested Deliverable:
Technical Report & Presentation
-
September 15, 2021 - Envision a model for a return on investment in leadership
- Based upon your research, what are your recommendations for advancing the model for describing and predicting the return on investment in leadership?
- What theoretical frameworks will you borrow from? How can you blend the work from across the research?
- What is the scope? What should be included? What should not?
- What framework(s) is best for this task?
- In what ways can you re-envision a model to more accurately and comprehensively map out the multiplicity of factors and their interactions?
- What questions remain? What important factors or relationships are not clearly understood?
- How is this model useful? What does it enable key stakeholders to do?
Suggested Deliverable:
Model Diagram and Report
Project Resources
There are no resources currently available