|
The
ability to attract and retain top performing tech trainers is the
key to achieving leadership position in executive education business,
believes AM Thimmiya
CRITICAL
SUCCESS FACTORS
Research shows that in today’s competitive scenario, the client
companies look for specific skills in three deliverable categories:
1.
Talent - The ability to attract star performers and leading-edge
technology trainers
2. Delivery process - The ability to deliver tailored programs with
world-class quality
3. Impact - The need to ensure that all educational programs align
and integrate with the strategic goals of the organisation rather
than a series of stand alone courses.
TALENT
There is a growing war for technology leadership in executive education.
The ability to attract and retain top performing tech trainers is
the key to achieving leadership position in executive education
business. The “Honest-Talent-Broker-Syndrome” envisages
the willingness to identify and utilise the best talent from other
organisations rather than insisting on incumbent talent. With the
growing need to deliver educational programs around the world and
the increasing demand for competent faculty, client companies are
looking for providers who can source talent from a variety of organisations,
including potential competitors.
A
new trend that is finding increasing acceptance in the industry
is assigning a process or content faculty to a small group of managers
to help them improve performance in a specific area. It is easy
to identify several situations when such a mentor or coach can significantly
contribute to the senior management’s unique needs.
DELIVERY
PROCESS
Training organisations today must focus on delivering centrally-designed
courses to a worldwide audience. This, however, necessitates a top
management obsession with training quality. An unwavering adherence
to applying a rigorous methodology to each phase of training is
turning out to be the key imperative. Most companies believe that
the use of technology is a growing trend in executive education
and that someday it would be a critical capability for a provider
delivering executive education to their company.
IIOM
- THE KEY
DIFFERENTIATOR
A blended approach in executing corporate training, the IIOM (Interactive
Instructor-led Online Mentoring) will propagate a new paradigm for
managing the dynamic aspects of organisational knowledge creating
process.
-
Top quality conceptual instructions using instructor-led training
-
Higher retention resulting from individual training through TBT
or online
-
24 x 7 online mentoring through expert faculty
-
Simulation exercises to reinforce problem-solving skills
-
Business projects from your work environment to instill confidence
and ensure productivity improvement
IMPACT
The provider that wants to win the battle on alignment and integration
will have to be prepared to devote significant time to understanding
the firm’s strategic conditions, and also integrate programs
across the other dimensions of executive development: job rotation,
feedback systems, stretch assignments, etc.
What
key strategy must the executive education provider focus on? At
the risk of stating the obvious, it is: Creating value and business
results — ensuring that executive education actually results
in management capability enhancement. Even in a downturn economy,
very few managers surprisingly feel that reducing costs is a trend
in executive education. Almost everyone agrees that delivering value
and impact within their organisation was a major, and growing, concern.
In
methodology-based training programs, such as, “Impact of IT
on Business Processes” or “Top Management Imperatives
in IT”, is it feasible, let alone possible, to measure results?
Senior corporate managers are often complaining that such courses
often turn out to be great provocateurs, challenging them to think
outside the box, but that they have a tough time helping managers
to directly apply those insights to real business problems.
When
looking at ROI and cost benefit analysis, it is important to remember
that:
- Improving efficiency means achieving the same results with lower
costs.
- Improving effectiveness means achieving better results with the
same costs.
- It is possible to get better results with lower costs, and this
is called improved productivity.
Having
said this how do we zero in on the measurable deliverables of a
training course? The three primary measures of learning outcome
are:
1.
Learning: achievement of the learning outcomes desired in the intervention.
2. Individual performance: change in individual performance as a
result of the learning being applied on the job.
3. Organisational results: consequences of the change in individual
performance.
The
writer is Vice President & Head- Aptech Corporate Training Division
(to
be continued next week)
-
|
People
