Best Companies for Leadership: The Top 20

What the Best Are Doing
Corporate officers discuss their employers' approach to developing strong leaders

General Electric
Headquarters: Fairfield, Conn.
Number of Employees: 320,000
Amount Spent Annually on Leadership Development: Approximately $400 million
Leadership Philosophy: "Today leaders are faced with so many challenges so often that any one set approach doesn't work 100% of the time. That's why we're focused on renewing our culture's focus on leadership development to reflect new realities. We're engaging our own leaders and a variety of outside thinkers to determine what it will take to lead in the 21st century." — Susan Peters, Vice-President, Executive Development, and Chief Learning Officer

Southwest Airlines
Headquarters: Dallas
Number of Employees: 35,000
Amount Spent Annually on Leadership Development: $3 million
Leadership Philosophy: "The future of leadership at Southwest looks like…preparing for the Super Bowl. Leaders will embrace the spirit of the game, demonstrate a fierce desire to win, and inspire each team player to be their best." — Elizabeth Bryant, Chief Learning Officer

3M
Headquarters: St. Paul, Minn.
Number of Employees: 79,000
Amount Spent Annually on Leadership Development: NA
Leadership Philosophy: "Investing in leadership development will remain a top priority. Our leaders provide the focus, power, and inspiration that have made 3M one of the most innovative enterprises in the world today. We recognize the powerful impact leaders have on the company's ability to continue delivering innovative solutions and social responsibility, so 3M will continue to encourage our leaders to look beyond themselves to the world in which we live." — Cindy Johnson, Global Director, Talent Development

Procter & Gamble
Headquarters: Cincinnati
Number of Employees: 135,000
Amount Spent Annually on Leadership Development: NA
Leadership Philosophy: "The single most enduring thing P&G leaders can do is to identify and develop our next generation of leaders. If we can get the right people with the right skills and experiences in place to run our business, the rest will take care of itself." — Laura Mattimore, Director, Leadership Development

Accenture
Headquarters: Hamilton, Bermuda
Number of Employees: 176,000
Amount Spent Annually on Leadership Development: The budget for leadership development is embedded within the training budget, which was approximately $800 million in fiscal year 2009.
Leadership Philosophy: "We're focused on developing next-generation leaders…people from across the world who will be running parts of our company in five years and who will inspire their colleagues and clients. We are working to identify these high-potential leaders early in their careers, give them more exposure to our leadership team, and help them forge important connections with colleagues, while providing them with critical development opportunities and encouraging them to take stretch roles." — Adrian Lajtha, Chief Learning Officer

Wal-Mart
Headquarters: Bentonville, Ark.
Number of Employees: 2,100,000
Amount Spent Annually on Leadership Development: $44 million-$55 million
Leadership Philosophy: "The future of leadership at Wal-Mart is rooted in our history of servant leadership. Our founder, Sam Walton, best described his role as simply 'picking good people and giving them maximum authority and responsibility.' In addition to our formal programs, we have a natural process in which leaders help develop each other that comes from our culture. …It is imperative to increase expectations of leaders to mentor each other around the world to influence greater collaboration, leading to higher performance and global success." — Roger Cude, Senior Vice-President, Global Talent Management

Nestlé
Headquarters: Vevey, Switzerland
Number of Employees: 283,000
Amount Spent Annually on Leadership Development: NA
Leadership Philosophy: "Leadership at Nestlé is about a long-term commitment to growing the business while growing people, and our leadership development efforts continue to stress the importance of learning from real, often international, experience, supported in more innovative ways aligned to people's changing aspirations and personal circumstances. This may include more short-term assignments, global projects, and even weekly commutes, as well as peer coaching and mentoring. Executive education will continue to play a supporting role." — Edward Marsh, Head of Talent & Organisation Development

Coca-Cola
Headquarters: Atlanta
Number of Employees: 92,400
Amount Spent Annually on Leadership Development: $14 million (includes salary and benefits of select people/positions dedicated to leadership development, the costs associated with major LD programs and initiatives, and executive coaching)
Leadership Philosophy: "To deliver against our 20/20 Vision, our future leaders will need to effectively navigate in a changing world—a world where macro global forces require shifts in thinking, shifts in behavior, and shifts in our world view." — Glenn Rosen, Director, Global Talent Management

McDonald's
Headquarters: Oak Brook, Ill.
Number of Employees: 400,000
Amount Spent Annually on Leadership Development: Approximately $480 million
Leadership Philosophy: "Our future success requires leadership not just in management roles, but at all levels of the organization. So, we expect every employee to live McDonald's values and demonstrate leadership, no matter what level or position they hold. Our accelerated leadership development programs typically focus on four areas: 1) Leading McDonald's in a complex, changing world; 2) Creating a climate for continuous improvement and innovation; 3) Getting work done through others; 4) Sustaining McDonald's for the future." — David Small, Vice-President, Global Talent Management & Leadership Development

Infosys
Headquarters: Bangalore, India
Number of Employees: 105,453
Amount Spent Annually on Leadership Development: NA
Leadership Philosophy: "Creating leaders is an absolute need. We have no option other than a process that is formalized, hard-coded into our DNA." — Nandita Gurjar, Senior Vice-President and Group Head of Human Resources

IBM
Headquarters: Armonk, N.Y.
Number of Employees: 398,455
Amount Spent Annually on Leadership Development: $700 million
Leadership Philosophy: "As the planet becomes smarter and more connected, every organization's success will depend on having the best leaders for tomorrow—from front line to executives. Leadership development is a top business priority. We need leaders who innovate, enable our clients' success, and embrace the opportunities and challenges of the global marketplace." — Ted Hoff, Vice-President, Center for Learning & Development

Cisco Systems
Headquarters: San Jose
Number of Employees: 65,847
Amount Spent Annually on Leadership Development: $5 million
Leadership Philosophy: "The Cisco approach to leadership transforms leader behavior from command and control to collaboration and teamwork, and it promotes innovation and operations excellence. In order to enable this model, we needed to think creatively about how we develop global executives at Cisco. As a result, we designed the Cisco Executive Action Learning Forum, a nontraditional process that develops executives in an innovation-oriented, collaborative culture and drives global strategic impact to the business." — Annmarie Neal, PsyD, Vice-President and Chief Talent Officer

United Parcel Service
Headquarters: Atlanta
Number of Employees: 425,300
Amount Spent Annually on Leadership Development: $15 million
Leadership Philosophy: "We realize effective leadership development takes time and planning. We consider the changing demands of the marketplace and other factors when designing our development programs that challenge employees to grow and share responsibility for their own opportunities. The overall investment for developing our people is actually higher than our estimate—it does not take into account intangible leadership development initiatives like mentoring, coaching, and lateral job assignments." — Anne Schwartz, Vice-President, Learning & Development

Ikea
Headquarters: Delft, Netherlands
Number of Employees: 123,400
Amount Spent Annually on Leadership Development: NA
Leadership Philosophy: "Leadership is always based on our core Ikea values. And as leaders we develop business and people together." — Pernille Lopez, Global Human

ABB Group
Headquarters: Zurich
Number of Employees: 120,000
Amount Spent Annually on Leadership Development: NA
Leadership Philosophy: "The future of leadership at ABB is the best of our current leadership qualities—global, innovative, ethical, and collaborative—with a capacity for development, which enables us to be powerfully positioned to lead tomorrow." — Sytske Casimir, Head of Learning & Development

Zappos
Headquarters: Henderson, Nev.
Number of Employees: 1,500
Amount Spent Annually on Leadership Development: NA
Leadership Philosophy: "The most critical component to the longevity and success of Zappos is our culture, and who better to inspire our culture than leaders who were raised in it?" — Pam Tidmore, Director of Pipeline Development & Customer Loyalty Dept.

Hewlett-Packard
Headquarters: Palo Alto, Calif.
Number of Employees: 304,000
Amount Spent Annually on Leadership Development: NA
Leadership Philosophy: "HP's market leadership has been a direct result of having strong leaders skilled at inspiring and delivering innovation, excellence, and seamless execution. Our continued focus on attracting and developing the 'best of the best' in talent and leadership has been a key driver for our ability to win in the marketplace, and it will continue to be a guiding principle." — Marcela Perez de Alonso, Executive Vice-President, Human Resources

Goldman Sachs
Headquarters: New York
Number of Employees: 30,067
Amount Spent Annually on Leadership Development: NA
Leadership Philosophy: "Goldman Sachs' focus on the future has to do with committing to innovation. People have to be able to take on new issues, new challenges, and things that offer a new layer of complexity, and our culture insists on using the best group of people to generate new ideas. A leader's mandate is to get smart people to become smart groups." — George Parsons, Chief Learning Officer

Unilever
Headquarters: London
Number of Employees: 174,000
Amount Spent Annually on Leadership Development: $17 million
Leadership Philosophy: "We've established a bold ambition to dramatically grow our business while simultaneously reducing our environmental impact. This is going to require both a lot of new ideas and leaders with different skills than we have today. We're committed to investing in the development of new leadership capabilities for this ambition because we're certain that the returns will be well worth it." — Sandy Ogg, Chief Human Resources Officer

General Mills
Headquarters: Minneapolis
Number of Employees: 29,500
Amount Spent Annually on Leadership Development: NA
Leadership Philosophy: "We believe great brands and great leaders go hand in hand. From the CEO to the front line, we will continue to support the growth of all leaders. We've recently launched a multiyear 'Great Manager' initiative, aimed at building our solid base of managers throughout the company. We've all had great managers in our careers that made a huge difference to us personally. Our intent is to multiply those types of leaders at General Mills." — Kevin D. Wilde, Vice-President, Organization Effectiveness, and Chief Learning Officer
-http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/feb2010/ca20100212_978330.htm
-BusinessWeek, February 16, 2010