Bettina Büchel, Professor of Strategy and Organization, and her team were recognized at the annual Chief Learning Officer magazine awards for their work co-creating a talent development program with Moroccan state-owned mining and fertilizer firm OCP and Africa Business School.  

This is the third recognition for the OCP custom program, following on from two Gold awards, one at the EFMD 2022 Excellence in Practice awards in May and another at the 2022 Brandon Hall Group awards in August. 

“Talent development and learning is at the center of any aspiring and successful organization,” said Professor Büchel. “That is our approach at IMD. We challenge what is and inspire what could be. I personally am deeply committed to that mission, and it is even more exciting to be recognized by an external community – the chief learning officers.” 

The case follows OCP, which in 2018 was a decade into a far-reaching transformation from an industrial phosphate mining giant into a customer centric agriculture company. To achieve its growth ambitions and diversify into new businesses it needed to develop new talent and skillsets. 

The result was an 18-month talent development program called Beyond which alternated between off-the-job academic learning and on-the-job action learning. The program was so successful that OCP launched a second cohort and created a separate program, Learnin’Pact, to expand the concept of interweaving academic and action learning to all of its 23,000 employees. 

Yasmina Lamtiri, Director of Custom Programs at Africa Business School said: "The Beyond program – given its strong connection to the field - has disrupted both how custom programs are designed and the purpose of these programs, which addition to upskilling employees, has become a powerful driver of change within the company.”