The Business of Learning:
15 Steps for Running
Learning Like a Business
Presented by:
Dave Vance
Former President of Caterpillar University
Kevin Oakes
CEO, i4cp
October 26, 2010
1
What Does i4cp Do?
We help organizations
leverage the core areas
of high performance
through 4 delivery
vehicles:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Research
Peers
Tools
Technology
2
The 5 Domains of High-Performance Organizations
And i4cp’s Centers of Knowledge That Support Them
3
Defining High Performance
High-performance organizations consistently
outperform most of their competitors for
extended periods of time.
These companies performed better over the past five
years, based on these four indicators:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Revenue growth
Market share
Profitability
Customer satisfaction
4
Members (partial list)
3M
Adobe Systems
Alliance One
Allstate
American Mgt. Assoc.
Ameriprise
Amway
Apollo Group
APS
Booz Allen
Boston Scientific
Cameco
Catholic Health
CitiGroup
ConAgra Foods
ConnectiCare
Darden Restaurants
Deloitte & Touche
Depository Trust
drugstore.com
Duke Energy
Duke University
Edwards Lifesciences
Eli Lilly & Co
ExxonMobil
FedEx Express
FedEx Ground
Federal Reserve
Fidelity Investments
Flextronics
GAP, Inc.
General Electric
General Mills
Home Shopping Network
ING Americas
Intel
Jack in the box
KFC
Kraft
LG Electronics
Lockheed Martin
McDonald’s Corp
MetLife
Microsoft
MITRE
Northrop Grumman
Olive Garden
Pelco
PETCO
Pfizer
Pizza Hut
PNC Financial Services
Prudential Financial
Qualcomm
Raytheon
Rio Tinto Group
Samsung
SaskTel
Shell Oil
Starbucks
Takeda Pharmaceuticals
Tampa Electric Company
T-Mobile
Toyota Motor Sales
United States Navy
U.S. OPM
United Water
The Y
YUM! Brands
5
About Kevin Oakes
Background
 Founder, CEO of i4cp
 Chairman, Jambok
 Former Chairman, ASTD Board
 Founder, President, SumTotal Systems
 Former CEO, Chair of Click2learn
 Founder, CEO Oakes Interactive
Kevin Oakes
CEO
i4cp
6
About Dave Vance
Background
 Former President of Caterpillar
University, which he founded in 2001.
 Dave was responsible for ensuring that
the right education, training, and
leadership were provided to achieve
corporate goals and efficiently meet the
learning needs of Caterpillar and dealer
employees.
 He is a member and former director and
treasurer of ASTD
Dave Vance
President
Manage Learning, LLC
7
Webinar Logistics
All corporate members will receive a PDF copy of
today’s presentation.
A link to a recording of today’s webinar will be
available on the i4cp site.
If you have any questions, please type them into
the Q&A box. We will do our best to address them
as we go along or at the end of the session.
8
Steps 1 and 2
1. Appreciate that learning is a business
2. Resolve to run it like a business
Implies that




Learning should produce results
Must be planned carefully
And executed with discipline
Also, that numbers will be involved!
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Steps 3-6
3. Adopt a strategic focus
4. Create a board of governors
5. Create vision and mission statements
6. Create a multi-year plan to achieve your vision



This will be your journey
Manage expectations
Communicate
10
The Business of Learning
11
Steps 7 and 8
7. Ensure that your organizational structure will support a
strategic focus

Centralized or hybrid
8. Adopt a workable funding model

Often will be a combination of corporate, allocation and
discretionary (charge back)
12
Step 9: Strategically Align Learning to your
Organization’s Goals
 Single most important action for an L&D leader
 Start with the business and strategic plan
 Meet with the CEO, senior leaders, key stakeholders
 Understand company goals and challenges
 Learn the priorities
 These are business discussions
13
Step 9: Strategically Align Learning to your
Organization’s Goals (cont.)
 Perform a “macro” level needs analysis to determine if
learning has a role to play in achieving these goals
 Make a preliminary determination of recommended
learning programs and their alignment to the prioritized
company goals
14
Strategic Alignment of Learning
Learning Program
Metric
10% Consultative selling skills for ee's
Product program for employees
Number of
Courses to
Sponsor
Unique
Support Goal
Division
VP
New Existing Participants
Sales
Ortega
100
0
1
100
2
3
#1
Strategic Goal
Increase Sales
#2
Reduce Defects
20%
Design course for engineers
5
2
200
#3
Reduce Injuries
25%
Safety courses for mfg ee's
Safety courses for mgt ee's
5
2
5
1
2,500
600
Swilthe
Mfg
#4
Improve Leadership +5 pts Leadership for supervisors
1
0
180
Wang
Strategy
#5
Increase Retention
5,000
2,500
======
5,000
Driese
HR
Top Five Goals
+5 pts Individual development plans
Performance mgt course for ee's
10
====
27
20
====
30
D'Agoto Quality
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Step 10: Build the Business Case for
Learning
 The business case brings together the expected impact
(and perhaps benefits) of the recommended learning and
the costs
 Impact: Increase in sales, reduction in injuries, or an increase in
productivity (often these can be dollarized)
 Cost: Budget costs (design, development, delivery,
reinforcement) and opportunity cost
 Net benefit or ROI (if appropriate)
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2011 Summary Business Case
Expected Unique
2011
Impact of Partici
Priority Corporate Goal
Target Learning pants
1
Increase Sales
10%
5%
100
2
Reduce Defects
20%
14%
200
3
Reduce Injuries
25%
15%
3,100
4
Improve Leadership
+5 pts +2 pts
180
5
Increase Retention
+5 pts +1.5 pts
5,000
Subtotal Top Five Prioities
5,000
Total
Partici
pants
1,100
800
13,600
180
7,500
23,180
Gross BudgetOpportunityTotal Net
Benefits Costs Costs
Benefit
(thous.) (thous.) (thous.) (thous.)
$1,500 $490
$117
$893
$2,100 $570
$512
$1,018
$1,200 $410
$376
$415
$1,200 $582
$302
$316
$1,800 $340 $1,150
$310
$7,800 $2,392 $2,457 $2,952
Subtotal Other Goals
Total All Goals
1,950
5,000
4,725
27,905
$3,050 $1,245 $778
$10,850 $3,637 $3,234
$1,028
$3,980
Unaligned Learning
Other Costs (not included elsewhere)
4,000
4,000
======
5,000
======
31,905
$700
$300
$400
NA
$600
$0
====== ====== ======
$11,550 $4,537 $3,634
$0
-$600
======
$3,380
Grand Total for All Learning
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Step 11: Create the Business Plan for
Learning
 Ideally, a written document with the following chapters:







Executive Summary
Last Year’s Accomplishments
Strategic Alignment
Business Case for Learning
Learning Resources, Expenditures, Budget
Detailed Work Plans
Evaluation Strategy
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Step 11: Create the Business Plan for
Learning (continued)
 Created with input from CEO, governing bodies,
stakeholders, learning professionals
 Approved by CEO and governing body
 This is your plan for the year
 Very scalable: An L&D function with just one person can
still do this
 With all the information gathered and tables created, a simple
one can be done in 8-12 hours
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Step 12: Plan for Monthly, Disciplined
Execution of the Plan
 Create scorecards to measure progress against goals
 Use high-level, program and detailed scorecards
 Calendar at least one staff meeting per month dedicated
to a review of your progress
 Ideally, the same day each month like the second Tuesday from
8-10 am
 Share progress at least quarterly with the board of
governors and/or CEO
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Step 13: Adopt an Evaluation Strategy that Ensures Planned
Impact is Achieved and Provides for Continuous
Improvement
 Start with the basics and add as you go
 Sample strategy:
 Level 0: number of participants, courses, completion dates,
costs
 All courses
 Level 1: reaction
 All courses, not necessarily all participants
 Level 2: learning
 Where appropriate. All compliance courses
21
Step 13: Adopt and Evaluation Strategy that Ensures
Planned Impact is Achieved and Provides for Continuous
Improvement
 Sample strategy (continued):
 Level 3: application
 Select courses
 Level 4: impact
 A few key courses
 Level 5: ROI or Net Benefit
 A few key courses
 Purpose: Ensure results and improve
22
Steps 14 and 15
14. Use business and economic concepts to make better
decisions

Like opportunity cost and marginal analysis
15. Benchmark with others. Learn. Improve
Remember, it is a multiyear journey. The goal is continuous
improvement.
23
Resources
 The Business of Learning: How to
Manage Corporate Training to
Improve Your Bottom Line
by Dave Vance
 A 36-page Sample Business Plan for
Learning (pdf, word, and excel files)
available at poudrerivergroup.com
 Book is also available at Amazon.com
24
The i4cp 2011 Annual Conference
Next Practices of High-Performance Organizations
March 15 – 18, 2011 | InterContinental Montelucia | Scottsdale, AZ
Speakers include:










John Coné former CLO of Dell
Dr. John Sullivan Professor
Stephen M.R. Covey Thought leader
Marshall Goldsmith Author
Bill Price former VP of Amazon.com
Dottie Brienza SVP of Hilton
Kevin Wilde CLO of General Mills
Antoinette Handler VP of Lockheed Martin
Marilyn Figlar CLO of Metlife
Paul Humphries VP of HR, Flextronics
Members Only – Vendors and consultants aren’t
permitted.
For more information, visit http://www.i4cp.com/conference
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Upcoming Events & Programs
Register online at http://www.i4cp.com/company/events/
Webinar : Accelerating Employee Productivity Through Onboarding
Presented by Claire St. Louis, Vice President of Human Resources, United Water
October 28, 2010, 1:00pm – 2:00pm EST
Online - complimentary
Webinar Hosted by HRPS - Leadership Agility in High-Performance Organizations
Presented by i4cp's Kevin Oakes, CEO and Jay Jamrog, SVP of Research
November 2, 2010, 11:00am - 12:30pm EDT
Online
Webinar : Global Leadership Development: Best Practices and Top Strategies
Presented by Sandra Edwards, SVP of Corporate Learning Solutions, AMA; Maria Van Parys, Director of Leadership Education & TM,
Boston Scientific and Mark Vickers, VP of Research, i4cp
November 3, 2010, 12:00pm – 1:00pm EDT
Online – complimentary
Webinar : Applying the Lessons of Best Service
Presented by Bill Price, former Global VP of Customer Support, Amazon.com
November 18, 2010, 1:00pm – 2:00pm EST
Online - complimentary
Webinar : John Coné – A History of Failure
Presented by John Coné, Principle, 11th Hour Group
December 9, 2010, 1:00pm – 2:00pm EST
Online - complimentary
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Corporate
411 First Avenue South • Suite 403 • Seattle, WA, U.S.A. 98104
Telephone 866-375-i4cp (4427) • Fax 206-624-6951
Research
8950 Ninth Street North• Suite 115 • St. Petersburg, FL, U.S.A. 33702
Telephone 727-345-2226 • Fax 727-345-1254
www.i4cp.com
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