Leadership Development Groups at Fujitsu

“The question of how to develop and train our middle managers was elusive; until now we were unable to discover particularly effective measures. In this situation we discovered
CoachingOurselves… ”

Mr. Ikegami, CEO of Fujitsu SSL in 2008

Social learning through peer coaching groups leads to increased communication and enhanced management skills

Challenge
Back in 2007, Fujitsu SSL performed an external assessment of its workforce and realized that their managers were having trouble finding opportunities for self-improvement and professional development. At the same time, a new headquarters had been set up and concern was rising about how to keep communication flowing effectively throughout the organization. Fujitsu SSL needed to find a program that would develop and train mid managers while also encouraging communication between headquarters and the various offices, all at a low cost.

Mr. Ikegami, then CEO of Fujitsu SSL, recognized that, in order to ensure the further advancement of the company, it would be necessary to aggressively promote employee development. The company found their solution in CoachingOurselves.

Solution
In collaboration with J-Feel, the exclusive CoachingOurselves partner in Japan, a manager leadership training program was designed for Fujitsu SSL. This program not only aimed at developing their middle managers but also at strengthening business relationships.

An inaugural cohort of mid-managers participated in 30 CoachingOurselves leadership training sessions where they were given the opportunity to reflect on their own management practice using carefully curated CoachingOurselves discussion topics with expert content. They shared experiences, opinions, and insights, and applied these learnings to their daily management and leadership practice.

Results
As a result of CoachingOurselves, Fujitsu SSL was able to increase cooperation and communication within headquarters and across all federated units, expand their business, give their employees valuable facilitation experience, and increase collaboration with business partners.  Due to the success of CoachingOurselves at Fujitsu SSL, other Fujitsu holding companies, such as CWC, FCT, FJM, FMCS, FNETS, FOM, FSAS and Nifty, have also launched CoachingOurselves.

As we can see below, the more managers that attended CoachingOurselves’ leadership training sessions, the more the profitability increased. Profits of Fujitsu SSL went up by 50% through CoachingOurselves peer-group coaching program as the organisation became more competitive and at the same time more relevant to society.

Fujitsu Social Science Laboratory (SSL) is a division of Fujitsu Group with 200$ million revenue and 1,168 employees. In 2007, Fujitsu SSL started using a CoachingOurselves program for management and leadership development. By 2022 more than 600 managers have graduated from a CoachingOurselves peer group coaching leadership development program across multiple Fujitsu Group companies.

| Read the Fujitsu SSL Case Study |

| Read the white paper on measuring ROI of CoachingOurselves at Fujitsu SSL |

Video Testimonial

In this video, Ms. Misako Shirahama, HR Manager of Fujitsu SSL, describes the use of Mintzberg’s CoachingOurselves approach to Social Learning and Peer Coaching. This was recorded during our own Reflections 2015 Conference, held in Montreal, in September 2015.