Recruiting from Within

Some companies come to realize that their superstars are already in their employ. They just need to nurture them. In Cindy Bradburn's case, Aetna Life & Casualty decided to invest in her future with the company by sending the manager of securities and accounting systems to a year-long, off-site, full-time training program at MIT's Sloan School of Management in Cambridge, Mass.

Many companies will pay for their hot shots in the general management ranks to go through some kind of intensive graduate program. But Rochelle Weichman, director of the Management of Technology Program at the Sloan School, the program in which Bradburn is enrolled, says she has seen more IT professionals attending her program during the last few years.

Many IS executives say that the real challenge in building a strong team that understands the company's business doesn't happen when employees first come out of college.

"The issue is what happens after three, four, five, six years later," says Glen Salow, Bradburn's boss and vice president of Information Technology for the Investments and Financial Services area of Aetna. Then, he says, there are two options: Either work for another company or go through a professional development program such as the one at the Sloan School.

"For Cindy, this program will allow her to learn how other companies do things--and why," says Salow. The program emphasizes working in teams, which fits with Aetna's business strategy, as well as with the way many other companies nationally and internationally operate. One of the program's highlights is a two-week trip overseas--this year, it's to Germany and Israel.

"I want to learn how to apply IT strategy planning with business strategy planning, how to combine the two effectively," Bradburn says.

When Bradburn returns to Aetna next June, she isn't sure what her new job will be. It will, however, be one with more responsibility than the one she left the year before, Salow says.

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