Value for Money
by Patricia Pulliam Phillips, Jack J. Phillips, Gina Paone, Cyndi Huff Gaudet, Kyle McLeod
Chapter 11Make It Credible: Convert Data to Monetary Value
Networking is an important benefit from many programs, and the monetary value of networking is an elusive figure. One of Canada’s largest banks decided to tackle this issue. This large banking system is on a path to be a major global organization with acquired banks in different countries and expanded divisions within the bank serving a global market.
Recently, the bank conducted a global leaders’ meeting at its headquarters in Toronto where the heads of the banking units and banks around the world discussed a variety of strategy and leadership topics. The talent development team saw this as an opportunity to enhance networking. Top executives had always thought that these operating executives could benefit by working together, perhaps sharing some of the same clients and expanding specialized services to other countries. Some bank units offer services that could be purchased by other parts of the bank. With the urging of top executives, the team decided to track the success of the networking and develop the actual monetary value for networking.
The bank used innovative technology where the name tags of individuals could electronically track networking. The devices tracked which participants met other participants, how long they met, and how many times they met. Participants were asked to keep their name badges with them at all times with this message, “We want to try an experiment to see how much networking actually ...