A talent business built on intellectual capital
FICO is a leading applied analytics company, founded in 1956 on the premise that data, used intelligently, can improve business decisions. Its software — and the widely used FICO® Score — serves businesses in more than 120 countries, and the company employs roughly 4,000 people across 30 countries.
That workforce leans heavily on highly specialized technical experts: software engineers and data scientists building the products at the core of the business. Attracting, developing, and retaining that talent in a competitive labor market — across 30 countries and many cultures — made scalable, personalized leadership development a strategic priority for FICO's HR and learning organization.
Four levels of leadership development, with coaching and mentoring at the center
Rather than a one-size-fits-all program, FICO structures its leadership development by experience level and role, with Torch — the leadership coaching and alignment platform — powering the high-touch tiers:
- Foundational: blended learning programs for all people managers globally.
- Advanced, career-focused: mentoring journeys for high-potential individual contributors — six-month guided mentorships with accomplished operating leaders from other companies, typically two or more career levels above the mentee.
- Advanced, people-leader oriented: coaching journeys for high-potential people managers — six-month engagements with professionally certified coaches (typically 15–20 years of coaching experience), customized to feedback-survey data and focused on 360° feedback, immediate goals, and performance.
- Proficient: the Great Manager Program, an immersive annual experience for the twenty managers with the highest engagement scores.
Each participant in the coaching and mentoring journeys is allocated two hours per month over six months, with the flexibility to distribute that time as they choose. The Torch platform handles matching — pairing employees with coaches or mentors based on functional background, career level, experience, and learning goals.
An investment, not a remediation
FICO offers these programs as an investment in individuals who have earned it: leaders with high feedback scores on effectiveness, high team engagement, and clear motivation. Candidates opt in and commit to the six-month journey. That selectivity creates what FICO's learning leaders describe as a pull effect — other employees see the program as something special and work toward qualifying for it.
Every engagement follows the same lifecycle, run by FICO's HR team in partnership with Torch: nomination, matching, goal-setting, a six-month coaching continuum, and evaluation with mid-point and end-point check-ins.
Measured like the business
FICO assesses leadership effectiveness with a combination of data sources rather than manager judgment alone: quarterly engagement surveys analyzed by manager level, 360° feedback merged with self- and manager assessments, and business metrics such as P&L and sales-target performance. Program data from the Torch platform feeds that measurement picture.
Results
In the program's first two years, participants reported feeling more encouraged to take risks — and moved into new positions they would not have considered before. Program ROI is emerging through increased team engagement, leaders' confidence in the program, and the development and retention of high-potential individuals and people leaders. FICO has expanded its partnership with Torch to bring the experience to more leaders.
"It's been a transformative journey for everyone involved," says Richard Deal, FICO's Chief HR Officer.
Read the full case study, researched and written by The Josh Bersin Company: download the white paper. Or explore more customer stories and how Torch approaches leadership coaching.