Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog

I recently spoke with Rich Geraffo, senior vice president, Americas, at BEA Systems, who told me that everything begins and ends with the customers. How does he ensure this, I asked? Building teams of leaders, not followers, he said. In turn, those leaders build out additional teams of leaders.

Gerrafo, who spent 15 years in a variety of sales leadership roles at IBM, brought this function to the table at BEA three years ago and has had great success—he has led his 450-plus team to a 17 percent increase in bookings.

Gerrafo, who focuses on talent management, said a cross-functional rotation strategy gives employees a diversified skill set and allows them to groom their talents. As a result, ongoing skill building has become the core competency of the company’s employee development plan.

Do you have an employee development plan? What works best at your company?