Case Study: Training and Development - Morgan Stanley

In January 2007 Morgan Stanley’s Women’s First Choice Network launched the ‘Cascade’ programme to facilitate career development through informal mentoring and networking for women. The long-term aim is to increase the number of female promotions and to improve female retention.

The programme was piloted with five sessions hosted by female Managing Directors with small (maximum 5 attendees) Executive Director groups. The sessions were structured around either breakfast, lunch or evening drinks and allowed the women to discuss their career experiences in a confidential environment, receiving inspiration and ideas from more senior colleagues.

Feedback was gathered from all attendees and the host via an online survey shortly after the event

Following the success of the initial pilot, the format of the programme was modified slightly to incorporate suggested changes. For the second phase personal biographies of the female Managing Directors were circulated with the programme details so that women could make an informed choice as to which session would be most helpful to them.

The next phase of the programme started in May 2007 with a roll-out across the Vice President group, with sessions hosted by female Executive Directors This phase required some modifications as larger numbers of women were targeted

These meetings will then cascade down the organisation so that all women are given the opportunity to participate.

A total of 20 women from the Executive Director group took part in the second phase of the programme. Of these, 40% provided feedback on the programme All were positive about the experience and 63% rated it as ‘excellent’. 100% would recommend the programme to other women at Morgan Stanley and 43% agreed that they would do something different as a result of the session.

Contact Point

Abbas Jaffer

Abbas Jaffer