Who We Are. What We Do.

• Industrial/organizational psychologists William C. Byham, Ph.D., and Douglas W. Bray, Ph.D., founded DDI in 1970. Click here to read more about DDI's founders
• More than 1,000 people work at DDI—at our corporate headquarters in Pittsburgh and in more than 42 offices in 26 countries.
• Our programs have been translated into 21 languages, including French, Japanese, Spanish, German, Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese, and Bahasa Indonesia.
• Our work with clients who operate worldwide constitutes two-thirds of our business.
• DDI has trained and developed more than 6.3 million leaders and executives worldwide. Each day more than 1,500 leaders benefit from one or more of our leadership training or assessment systems. Their newly acquired skills have influenced the work lives of more than 210 million employees.
• Organizations have hired nearly 24 million people using DDI’s selection systems. More than 10,000 people are hired each day using DDI technologies.
• DDI has staffed and trained high performance workforces for 200+ plant startups and expansions.
• More than 20,000 facilitators/instructors have been trained to deliver DDI systems.
• DDI annually conducts more than 3,000 executive assessments around the world through a network of 29 Acceleration Centers^® across four continents.
• DDI has worked with organizations in every industry, including manufacturing, health care, government agencies, financial/insurance, aerospace, pharmaceuticals, technology, consumer goods/services, and telecommunications.
• 96 percent of our clients would work with us again...and do.

• Pioneered the use of assessment centers to help companies make more accurate hiring and promotion decisions. Introduced Acceleration Centers^® (modern assessment centers) offering executive leadership assessment programs to help companies identify and accelerate the growth of senior leadership talent.
• Introduced the world’s first commercially available leader training program based on behavior modeling—Interaction Management^®. In 2003, DDI launched Interaction Management^®: Exceptional Leaders . . . Extraordinary Results^® (IM: EX^SM), a radical redesign of the original. It’s a systematic approach to improving leadership performance.
• Developed the first behavior-based selection system and interviewer training program, Targeted Selection^®, allowing organizations to be more successful in hiring the right people.
• Introduced the first, and still the most comprehensive, broad-based online performance support system—OPAL^® (Online Performance and Learning).
• Established a new type of 360° multirater system that collects input via e-mail—Leadership Mirror^®.
• Introduced Targeted Feedback®/Patent Pending, a new approach to 360° assessment that focuses on an individual’s top three strengths and top three growth areas.
• Created E3®, an automated survey tool to benchmark employee engagement, satisfaction, and retention.
• Unveiled Assessing Talent: People Leader® a web-delivered behavioral assessment program used to evaluate the potential and readiness of leaders.\
• Introduced AcqHire®, a system that builds best practices into your hiring and promotion processes to help you make the right talent decisions.
•  Developed Success Profiles: NavigatorSM, a software platform that automates job analysis, enabling you to create a holistic Success ProfileSM for the job families in your organization. This Success Profile can incorporate competencies, personal attributes, knowledge, and experience.

CLIENT SUCCESSES

• Caterpillar University reports an ROI of 122 percent for the enterprise and an average benefit per participant of $6,458 in building performance management skills for 10,000 employees
• HCA improved employee retention by more than 42 percent and realized a 26.7 percent improvement in cost savings at its nine-facility TriStar Health system.
• New York Life Taiwan provided customer service training that realized an estimated 518 percent return on investment.
• Quest Diagnostics identified and selected leaders who contributed to outstanding financial results, including a 300+ percent increase in market value in one year’s time.
• The Schwan Food Company followed a Grow Your Own Leaders^® approach in building executive-level bench strength—saving an estimated $3 million in recruiting and on-boarding costs alone.
• Sanofi-aventis sourced, screened, and hired more than 1,000 top-notch sales professionals in 120 days, while reducing hiring costs by more than 20 percent.
• University of Pittsburgh Medical Center created special projects for its high-potential leaders, realizing $500,000 in immediate savings—and the potential for savings/opportunities in excess of $38 million.
• Xstrata implemented an accelerated development program for its high potential leaders, who contributed to a more than $29 million increase in market capitalization.
• Philips deployed a unified core leadership development curriculum to more than 11,000 leaders in 35 countries
• JetBlue decreased its total turnover to half the industry average—and just 2-3 percent for pilots—by revising its selection process.
• Texas Children’s Hospital, by making leadership development a core business strategy, revitalized its HR systems across the board. Employee satisfaction survey scores are now in the top 1 percent of health care organization and turnover is nearly half the industry average of 18-20 percent.  

MAJOR RESEARCH 
Since its founding, DDI has been committed to research to advance thinking and uncover trends and issues in areas such as selection, performance management, and leadership. To conduct original research that benefits clients, DDI created CABER, the Center for Applied Behavioral Research. Read more of DDI's Trend Research.
Significant research studies include:

• Leadership Forecast: A Benchmarking Study (1999, 2001, 2003, 2005-2006, 2008-2009)
• ASTD Competency Study: Mapping the Future: New Workplace Learning and Performance Competencies (conducted in partnership with the American Society for Training & Development) (2004)
• Employee Retention In China: The Flight of Human Talent (2007)
• Global Sales Perceptions Report: Sales: Strategic Partnership or Necessary Evil? (2007-2008)
• Growing Global Executive Talent: High Priority, Limited Progress (conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit on behalf of DDI) (2008)
• Leaders In Transition: Stepping Up, Not Off (2007)
• Leadership in China: Keeping Pace with a Growing Economy (2005)
• Selection Forecast (2004-2005, 2006-2007)
• Talent Management In Motion: Keeping Up with an Evolving Workforce (conducted in partnership with the Human Capital Institute) (2007)
• The CEO’s Role in Talent Management (in conjunction with the Economist Intelligence Unit) (2006)