QAI and Dr. Bill Curtis have established a “Global Center of Excellence for Workforce Strategy and Development”. The Center of Excellence, leveraging the widely acclaimed People CMM® framework, from Carnegie Mellon University, USA will address the area of workforce strategy and development.

The Workforce Strategy and Development (WSD) Global Center of Excellence has formed a strategic partnership with the Indian School of Business’ Centre for IT and the Networked Economy (CITNE) for cross-border research, innovation and publications. The coming together of three leading entities is designed to leverage the research orientation of CITNE, the real world experiences and deep expertise and process capabilities of QAI, and the thought leadership of Bill Curtis.

The launch of the Center of Excellence was followed by a series of events and trainings Singapore, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai along with Bill Curtis.

Underscoring the need for such a platform, Navyug Mohnot, CEO, QAI India said,“I am delighted on the formation of the Global Centre of Excellence. I am convinced that an initiative such as this one will contribute to the organization's ability to create an agile and innovative Workforce. Given today’s economic structures and global dynamics that are shaping organizations, redefining the meaning of work and reshaping the flow of talent, the issues that the Centre will address become not just relevant, but critical for success and long term well being of organizations."

Commenting on the launch, Bill Curtis said, “Center of Excellence gives us an ability to organize the talent required to support the global roll out of People CMM®. Over the next year we will be bringing new products and services to the market to support organizations in using the People CMM® to improve their workforce strategy and practices. In addition, we will undertake research in critical areas to advance our knowledge of the most effective strategies and practices for improving workforce capability.”

In a further joint initiative CITNE at ISB will introduce a graduate (PhD) student residency program designed to provide outstanding researchers the opportunity to pursue rigorous applied research that benefits the Indian Information and Communication (ICT) industry and is targeted for publication in top journals.

Speaking about the strategic partnership, Dr. Ravi Bapna of ISB said, “We have ignored the knowledge creation or research aspect of our educational system for too long. Creating a culture of research and innovation requires a significant commitment and a long-term view from all stakeholders. This is a fantastic example of an industry-academia linkage necessary to create the next generation of knowledge workers.”

This global initiative will certainly provide a path to success for companies worldwide through new business initiatives related to performance excellence.