Today we visited the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro NC. This non-profit organization was founded in 1970 and today has locations in over 120 countries in four different continents. Nearly 21,000 leaders from 3,000 different organizations around the world work with the Center for Creative Leadership each year.
The mission of the Center for Creative Leadership over the past 44 years has been to accelerate strategies and business results for their clients all over the world by unlocking their leadership potential. Each year, the Center for Creative Leadership provides services to leaders from over 3,000 companies that make up over two-thirds of the Fortune 100 companies and about 200 institutions. The Center for Creative Leadership conducts research, writes books and other publications, and provides a wide variety of educational programs and products to leaders and organizations around the world.
The intended customers of the Center for Creative Leadership are really anyone who wishes to improve their ability to lead and succeed in a business setting. The people at CCL believe that a good leader reflects on their experiences, and it was interesting to see how they incorporated that into designing their campus in Greensboro. It seemed like around every corner there was another group of couches for people to sit at and reflect or a drink machine and snacks. It was also interesting to see that their building doubles as an art gallery, and they change out the art every few months. I think the most desired customer for CCL would be someone already at some sort of leadership position and finding themselves lacking necessary skills to succeed and reach their goals. The average CCL customer definitely values the success of their organization, and they invest in CCL to help improve their skills in managing the organization. So, they would expect great level of customer service from the workers at CCL and a clear improvement in their leadership qualities and eventually an improvement in their organization.
The CCL’s results so far show that they are clearly a company moving in the right direction and “cutting edge” in their field. They have expanded greatly since being founded in 1970 and it only seems like they will continue to grow. Their plan for future success is to continue developing leaders through the CCL Advantage, which is “Rather than teaching how to manage, analyze, or strategize, we help leaders ‘learn how to learn’ from colleagues, their organization and others. Most importantly, we help leaders learn from their own experience.” The CCL’s programs are based on a three part model: Learning through feedback (Assessment), Learning by doing (Challenge), and Learning through the process of change (Support). The CCL has been ranked in the top 10 for the past decade in the financial times, and in 2013 was ranked 8th in the worldwide survey of executive education. The CCL was also ranked 6th in the Open Enrollment category of the Bloomberg BusinessWeek and 8th in the Custom category.
Follow
