A vendor-provided case study: Motorola University uses Celemi solutions to impact business results in tough times.
Like everyone else over the past two years, Schaumburg, Illinois-based Motorola saw its corporate training budgets first cut, then slashed. After the smoke cleared, few of the communications giant's course offerings, offered through world-renowned Motorola University, were left standing.
"It was painful, but the process of getting to our final solution was enlightening," says Marguerite Foxon, principal performance technologist at MU. Foxon retains executive responsibility for determining MU's global leadership and management curriculum for directors and managers. Motorola ended 2002 with more than 97,000 employees.
In headier times, MU offered dozens of management and leadership development courses for four training tracks or levels: vice president, director, middle manager, and new manager. An economic downturn and sluggish sales in the telecom industry changed all that. Foxon was forced to eliminate many courses and trim the offerings to only one or two per level. In addition, division heads the internal clients who have to pay for training services--began to demand confirmation that there would be a return on their investment.
"Downsizing showed us that we weren't as in tune with our customers as we thought," says Foxon. "As soon as they found themselves with limited training dollars, our internal customers began to demand a higher level of relevance. They questioned the results of every course."
Thinking business critical
Throughout Motorola, business heads demanded the same thing: assurance that each training intervention would impact critical business issues and have measurable results.
"The one or two interventions we offered at each level had to have a positive impact on the business and make it more profitable," recalls Foxon. "In particular, leadership training had to result in visibly improved skills in leading and managing a business unit."
Foxon first conducted a company-wide needs assessment to identify the key performance gaps at the director level. Financial and business acumen emerged as the overriding need. "If we could address this gap," says Foxon, "I was confident that we would make a significant difference to the quality of business leadership and management." She began looking for a business simulation program that would address MU's specific needs. Decision Base®, a simulation developed by Celemi that exposes participants to the practical application of financial concepts, was chosen. In the simulation, participants take a strategic approach to running a business unit and discover the effect of individual decisions on the organizational system as a whole.
There are several reasons Foxon concluded this tool was the best fit for this group of learners in Motorola:
Decision Base® isn't a computer-based simulation.
"Electronic simulations are more expensive to run, especially when you're delivering off-site sessions. That's because you need to bring in equipment. Computer-based simulations generally require more than one facilitator," says Foxon. "Besides, at work people usually make decisions around a table, scribbling on flipcharts and having constant dialogue, rather than sitting around a computer screen."
It's tactile and visual.
"You move--literally--the cash around the game board. Seeing how the cash flows through the organization and the impact of participants' decisions on the business as a whole is a powerful learning experience."
It's flexible.
Says Foxon, "We knew people would need at least three days of training, but given the difficult economic climate our customers wouldn't agree to having workers off the job for more than two days. Decision Base® is a flexible product that allows us to get around that constraint. We start the session early in the morning and participants work through lunch, take a brief dinner break, and finish about 9 p.m. On the second day, the simulation goes through until midday. Decision Base® is also flexible in that it allows the facilitator to tailor the simulation real-time for the specific learning needs of each group."
It's compelling.
"The participants get so engrossed," says Foxon, "that late at night we often have to tell them to leave so the cleaners can come in. They begin again early the next day, and everyone is always there before the starting time. They can't wait to get back into the simulation. I've never seen that kind of excitement with any other training intervention in my 20-plus years in this field."
Celemi can deliver in every region where Motorola operates and in languages such as Mandarin or Spanish if need be. "We're committed to providing a global solution and don't want to be flying U.S. instructors around the world. Celemi has people on the ground in the countries where we want to offer Decision Base®," notes Foxon.
Motorola has been offering Decision Base® since August 2001, and has run it for some 600 participants throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, and Latin America. According to Foxon, "Not one person has ever said the experience was just OK. Participants can see the direct and immediate applicability to their work situations, and they can start implementing the new skills and knowledge immediately."
Learn more about Decision Base®