As such, executive chairman Benjamin Keswick has set a common goal for the employees via the JDIIA. They are to be equipped with the right skills and technological competencies to remain relevant and competitive in a disrupted digital economy. For the first run in 2019, 240 employees across 15 business units from nine countries were enrolled.
It was perhaps the worst of times to launch a new employee training programme. Brimming with optimism, Hong Kong-based regional conglomerate Jardine Matheson had just launched the Jardines Digital, IT and Innovation Academy (JDIIA) with global learning provider Hyper Island. This marked the first time in the group’s 188-year history where it had undertaken a group-wide initiative to provide learning and development (L&D) experiences en masse to its diverse business units.
The scope of the project was ambitious, considering that Jardines operates as a decentralised organisation, with over 464,000 employees across the world covering industries ranging from real estate to groceries to vehicle distribution. Inevitably, people from each of the different business units across different markets bring with them different beliefs and approaches to doing things.
