CLIENT CASE STUDY 
Standard & Poor’s
Designing and Delivering Accredited
Finance Program to International Ratings Agency
ORGANIZATIONAL CHALLENGE
In 2008, Standard & Poor’s announced a number of changes that it believed would help transform its business in light of the financial crisis. S&P focused on changes that further improve the quality of their analytics. The organization believes that by investing in its analysts, it can provide the market with more insightful ratings and research. The program focused on expanding analysts’ knowledge of capital markets, fortifying ratings and further understanding financial markets from the investors’ perspective.
SOLUTIONS
- Create a global, organization-wide credit analyst certificate program for existing and new analysts to enhance their understanding of complex financial instruments and to strengthen market/consumer confidence (1400 analysts, 30 worldwide offices)
- Supplement analysts’ knowledge by providing a broader financial perspective that includes an enhanced understanding of the sell side in conjunction with the buy side
- Reinforce work across internal informational silos
ACTIONS
- Designed, delivered, and continue to deliver a complex, large scale custom program to multiple groups of credit analysts in the US and Europe
- Provided comprehensive tools and frameworks in financial statement analysis, statistics, valuation, fixed income basics, derivatives and credit scoring to educate analysts beyond their silos of expertise, to prepare for job rotation
- Facilitated a blended learning curriculum with appropriate content and intellectual rigor
- Provided oversight and guidance of curriculum for a multi-level examination, to ensure uniform learning and compliance across the organization
PROGRAM OUTCOMES
- Analysts leave with a broader understanding of areas outside of their respective analytical areas and improved critical analysis capabilities
- Standard and Poor’s continues to improve the high standard of its credit analysts
