Mastering the Plan

Mastering the Plan…..Priceless

When Master Card become a public corporation in May 2006, the momentous occasion signified the start of a new way of doing things for the company’s 4,600 employees around the world. Company executives wanted to ensure that every employee understood what such a change meant & how Master Card would be different after the IPO. To do that they decided to hold the “the largest single learning event in the company’s history.”

This learning event, dubbed the roadmap to the Future, was to be series of intensive, 4.5 hour seminar conducted in 110 workshops in 36 cities over a 3 week time frame .Rebecca Ray, the company’s senior VP for global learning ,was put in charge of the event .She recognized that pulling it off effectively and efficiently would require some serious & detailed planning .Dozen of company HR specialists and hundreds of local managers around the world would be serving as trainers and facilitators .They would be the ones face-to-face with employees ,teaching them about what being a publicly traded company meant & what changes they could expect .Preparing these individuals for such an important task world require significant planning .The goal of the training was to ensure that every employee understood the business strategy and how Master Card would be different after the IPO.

The training programme was to be anchored by three “learning maps “or topics .The first called “Universe of Opportunity”, would describe the company’s competitive landscape and industry challenges /opportunities .The second titled “How We Make Money”, was to focus on Master Card’s financial models & how it fits into the industry .The final one ,titled “New Climate ,New Culture, New Company “, would be very detailed about the company’s strategy as a public company & what it would take to successfully pursue that strategy.