Case study: How T-Systems Malaysia makes mini-leaders of every employee

Vaclav Koranda, Vice President of Human Resources, T-Systems, tells Priya Sunil how his team leverages mainly on internal resources to build a leadership mindset in every employee, in order to drive the company to success. 

At digital service provider T-Systems Malaysia, the HR team takes a holistic and comprehensive approach to leadership development. To this effect, it works hand-in-hand with its subsidiaries in other countries, says T-Systems’ Vaclav Koranda, Vice President of Human Resources, in order to add an international dimension, leverage ideas and resources, and foster a global leadership culture in the organisation.

After being equipped with such resources, the other part of it is to address the business need for leadership development, that is, the increasing level of digitisation and automation which creates pressure on the overall maturity of the organisation, especially leadership.

To achieve this mission, T-Systems is about to embark on a revamped programme, wherein it will leverage its internal resources from different locations and countries.

Keeping the in-house resources in focus, the team expects to keep the engagement of external providers at a minimum. Thus, with the initial investment being quite small, great gains and ROI are expected.

Koranda and his team truly believe in the power of leadership. “I firmly believe that the most important success factor is quality of leadership at the lowest level of the organisation – and even on the employee level,” he explains.

“If it’s only the top leaders that pull the company ahead, it will be like a single horse pulling a heavy truck. It will be very hard to succeed. However, if all employees behave like mini-leaders in their respective areas, imagine the power that will drive the company forward!”

Looking towards 2020: What’s on the agenda?

Moving forward, Koranda shares his hopes for the year ahead: "I think leadership development starts with leadership selection. I would really appreciate some better tools that would help us to assess the leadership potential in our employees."

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This case study was part of a feature on leadership development, which appeared in the Q2 edition of Human Resources magazine (Malaysia). Read the full feature in the special Learning & Development edition out now, or in our online version!

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