Jim Quigley, former CEO and now Senior Partner of Deloitte, has had the daunting task of trying to get 180,000 people on the same page. Central to that task, he says, has been the creation of Deloitte University – a $350 million dollar embodiment of Deloitte’s commitment to its employees’ professional goals and development.

Jim Quigley:  Every large company has a number of challenges when it comes to sustaining the commitment to development of their people.  I believe the single biggest challenge is simply maintaining that focus and executing on the ambition and strategy that is always put forward.  Everyone says they’re committed to the development of their people.  The doing it is the hard part. 

I’m very proud at Deloitte of the $350 million we’ve spent in building Deloitte University.  We cut the ribbon in October on a world-class leadership and development site to demonstrate to our people that we cared about their development.  Even with that $350 million facility, we’re only able to conduct maybe 25 percent of the learning experiences we want to provide to our people in the U.S.  We’ll deliver four million hours of professional development this year, and one million of those hours will be delivered on our campus at Deloitte University near Dallas. 

So we must invest in building the capability of our people.  And if we don't invest in building their capability, they’re going to go someplace else where they think someone will.  And with the huge volume of information that is coming at us constantly, the data that is just simply moving at an unprecedented pace, some way we’ve got to be able to filter all of that noise and get to information that really makes a difference for that professional and what their ambition is and what they want to accomplish. 

Directed / Produced by

Jonathan Fowler & Elizabeth Rodd