Gold for Cranfield and BG Group

Published 17 Jun 2016

Press release number PR-SOM-16-34

Cranfield School of Management has scooped a gold award in recognition of its executive development programme with oil and gas business, BG Group, by international management development network, EFMD.

Competing with business schools around the world, Cranfield’s Centre for Customised Executive Education (CCED) was praised for its business expertise, relevance to the corporate world, and strong long-term business relationships in EFMD’s Excellence in Practice category.

CCED’s Exploring Leadership programme was developed by Cranfield’s Executive Development Director, Mark Threlfall, and BG Group’s Head of Learning & Development, Craig Darroch. Exploring Leadership is targeted at middle to senior managers at the core of the organisation’s strategic development encourages participants to reflect on their current leadership practices, even taking them out into the countryside to allow for undisturbed self-reflection. This enables them to better understand how their past leadership experiences at work can influence their future management style.

Mr Threlfall is particularly interested in ‘Soft Systems Thinking’ which supports participants with interpreting organisational situations at a more detailed, intuitive level. Using this research, CCED and BG Group have been able to design successful customised programmes, such as Exploring Leadership, influenced by real-life workplace scenarios.

Dr John Glen, Director of CCED, commented: “It is an honour to have won the Excellence in Practice award. As businesses increasingly require personalised education programmes, the University’s Centre for Customised Executive Development partners with global clients to design and deliver learning programmes that meet their leadership and talent development needs, thereby, enhancing both individual and organisational performance.”

Mark added: “Success in wining this award was built upon the development of a strong, real partnership with BG Group. Significant investment in developing relationships across the wider stakeholder group enabled us to design and deliver an impactful intervention, that has truly made a difference to individuals and the organisation. Coupled with world class learning processes, delivery teams, and locations we believe we have created something special, that delivers sustainable results.”

The Excellence in Practice award recognises unique and impactful learning and development partnerships and is awarded every year. The helps bridge business education institutions and corporate organisations by coordinating academic and business projects; generating new ideas for enhancing management practices and providing an environment for academics and professionals to network.

In May 2016, Cranfield School of Management’s customised programmes were named as the world’s best for international reach by the Financial Times. The endorsement was a further accolade for Cranfield’s customised executive development, which retained its overall global top ten position, where it has ranked consistently over the last four years.

Further reading - Developing Leaders Quarterly

Notes for editors

About EFMD

The EFMD management development network includes over 860 institutional members from academia, business, public service and consultancy across 84 countries worldwide. EFMD offers a range of services, including conferences and seminars around the world, surveys and the dissemination of knowledge, quality improvement and accreditation via EQUIS, EPAS, EOCCS and CLIP, as well as the EDAF mentoring programme and BSIS impact assessment system. For more information about .

About Excellence in Practice Awards

The recognise outstanding case studies describing effective and impactful Leadership and Development interventions between partner organisations. The specific Learning and Development domain in which the case is situated can be Executive-, Professional-, Talent- or Organisational Development.