By carefully studying the characteristics of high achievers out of Dixons’ middle managers, seven ‘stretch’ factors were identified which were made central to both the selection of potential managers and to their development programme. These factors were:

■ passionately driving Dixons’ future,

■ broad and innovative long-term thinking,

■ simplifying business complexity,

■ driving and using partnerships to benefit Dixons,

■ creating ‘joined-up’ teams,

■ building Dixons’ learning and development capability,

■ demonstrating learning agility

By using these factors and other assessment centre techniques, 20 managers were chosen in 2003 to engage in a 15-month programme containing six modules – leadership, personal effectiveness, organisational performance, financial performance, business transformation and e-business. Group members are expected to support and challenge each other over the period and take part in a ‘live’ business project. One of the main objectives of the programme is to ensure there is a steady flow of well-trained and confident managers so that for each senior appointment made externally, there will be four made internally. This stimulates a high retention rate and a huge saving in recruitment costs.