Value for Money

Chapter 7Expect Success: Design for Results

A new president was selected to lead Global Finance Organization (GFO), an NGO created to make loans and provide funding to developing countries. This new president was doing what new presidents typically do, reviewing the budgets of different departments. One particular item caught his attention, which was an executive coaching program involving 400 managers and 75 external coaches, representing a sizeable budget. This prompted a discussion with the talent development team about the value of this coaching.

Although the new president was supportive, he asked, “I would like to see the ROI of this program. Do you have that?”

The team indicated that they had not evaluated this program at that level, but perhaps they could, if necessary.

The president added, “We need to do this for expenditures this large and for programs that are designed to help our managerial and executive teams.”

This request prompted an evaluation of the coaching process with the goal to track the business value and the financial ROI of this program. To accomplish this task, GFO engaged a consulting firm that focused on ROI studies.

In the initial meeting with GFO, the consultant asked about the nature and scope of the program: “Are there any business objectives for this coaching program specifically detailing the business need for this coaching process?”

The team responded, “No, there were actually no objectives for the program, just agenda items created by the coach ...