Page 35 - HKMA TA2020 Souvenir Programme

Bronze Award Special Award

“GOAL (Growth Opportunities for Accelerated Leaders) Program” Best in Leadership Development

Esquel Group

About Esquel Group
Esquel is a vertically-integrated textile and apparel company which was founded in 1978 with diversified global workforce across different countries
and headquarters in Hong Kong. Esquel operates with an aspiration of “making a difference” by weaving positive impact to the employees, societies and
environment.
“Grooming people from within” is their people strategy. People and sustainability are core to our being, with themes of ethics, environment, exploration,
excellence and exploration (5E culture).
Objectives
Started from 2010, Esquel introduced a development program, named GOAL (Growth Opportunities for Accelerated Leaders), to develop talents. The
program now tailors to colleagues in all levels who have potential for more stretching assignments and challenging opportunities and aims at “Building
the Leadership Pipeline that Sustains Business Success”.
Design and Implementation
The GOAL Program has comprehensive and all-round program design for 4 different levels. The latest business direction/ strategies, best practices sharing
to reinforce the 5E culture, various leadership skills are imprinted. Various training interventions and business network have been designed to help GOAL
participants:
• Align with the business direction/ strategies
• Acquire knowledge and skills
• Apply what they have learnt in the daily and cross-functional team projects to build their strengths
Their senior management is highly involved in the process from nomination, selection, mentorship, sharing in training and graduation events, and even
the follow-up after graduation. HR partners of local sites are key players to keep track on GOAL participants’ progress. Their involvement reinforces their
ownership of talent development.
The 1st unprecedented leadership model in the company was developed. They built four key pillars of leadership attributes and developed internal
mini-cases. The line directors involved in the cases were then invited to tell the stories that reinforces the open-mindedness learning culture.
Esquel has a strong, connected & built-in mentorship. GOAL participants pass on their values and knowledge to next levels and create a mentorship
culture so as to sustain the company’s values.
Outcomes
From 2010 to now, the GOAL program truly provides many growth opportunities with their talents with the support of good practices and stakeholders.
1. Cost Effective

• The investment is far less than the business impact generated and brought in by the leaders groomed in the GOAL program.
2. Built Peer Learning Culture & Observed Leadership Behavior Change

• The in-depth peer learning and interactions have created a strong bonding and paved the way to leverage the internal resources in leading
changes in projects.

• Enhanced leadership capabilities of GOAL participants have been proved.
3. Sustainable Leadership Pipeline & Created Synergy Across Business & Operation Units

• The average retention rate of GOAL participants is over 80%.
• They have found many successful cases of staff mobility (career movement) across and up the Company.
• Over 20% of successors in the company’s succession plan and 20% of Esquel’s top 30 key positions are from GOAL.
Comments from Adjudicators
A holistic and well-structured programme aimed to build future succession pipelines to equip talents with the needed qualities to support the l­ong-term
business growth of the Group. The four different levels of executives were immersed into a variety of comprehensive training and development
opportunities, including leadership and graduation camps, executive sharing, one-on-one mentoring, job rotation/attachment, etc.
The programme achieved positive results in various aspects, including higher retention and promotion rate. It enticed a strong leadership bonding
amongst the participants as they took ownership of other trainee’s development as well as provided constructive feedbacks during the process.
On the whole, it was a comprehensive programme with strong commitment to nurture talents within the Group into future leaders for succession
planning.

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