Chief Learning Officer - June 2008 - (Page 30) PROFILE Alcatel-Lucent’s Jan Ginneberge Atlas of Learning ost major companies today operate outside of the borders of their home countries on some level. Modern supply chains, international finance and offshore outsourcing labor arrangements offer increased speed, more cost-savings opportunities and greater market reach to enterprises of all kinds. Thus, despite the often unpredictable nature of doing so, the lure of growing the business by venturing overseas is too lucrative for most organizations to pass up. But it is likely that few multinationals can claim to have the extensive global character of telecommunications provider Alcatel-Lucent. The company does about one-third of its business in Europe, one-third in North America and one-third throughout the rest of the world. Its values include respect for and embrace of all peoples and perspectives, and its corporate vision is simply: “Transforming the way the world communicates.” Alcatel-Lucent’s workforce numbers 77,000 people worldwide. The global nature of the organization influences its approach to talent and how it’s developed, said Jan Ginneberge, vice president of learning at Alcatel-Lucent University, who is responsible for all employee training, ranging from technology to managerial and leadership programs. “If you’re working in 130 countries and you have people from different nationalities, it’s not only having a global presence, it’s also having this distribution of nationalities,” he explained. “If you look at the difference between us and other companies that have a global presence, you’ll see that we have this global talent pool. We have 21 [corporate] universities across the globe, from Ottawa to Brazil and Sydney to Shanghai. This scope gives us enormous coverage. The distribution of our employees follows the distribution of our customers.” Under the current learning structure, all of these corporate universities report to Ginneberge, who is based at Alcatel-Lucent’s headquarters in Paris. But most of them have a large degree of autonomy in terms of how they manage allotted resources and BY BRIAN SUMMERFIELD In ancient Greek mythology, the Titan Atlas held up the entire world on his shoulders. A modern-day Atlas in his own right, Jan Ginneberge, vice president of learning at Alcatel-Lucent University, supports his company’s learning offerings around the world. M JAN GINNEBERGE Vice President of Learning, Alcatel-Lucent University SUCCESSES • Helped prepare thousands of sales and sales support personnel prior to the merger between Alcatel and Lucent. • Quadrupled the percentage of learning delivered online in a few years. • Created a network of learning consultants to align employee development solutions to business issues. LEARNING PHILOSOPHY “My mission is to add qualifications and capabilities to the company and individuals. We’re part of the supply chain of delivering qualified people. I’m always focused on what impact we’re generating for the company, more than the number of seats we’ve filled or programs we’ve created.” determine the development needs of employees and customers locally. “On the one hand, we have initiatives where people in this function or that responsibility have mandatory training,” Ginneberge said. “But all of our training is run in a self-service, subscription mode, where people subscribe to training online. It’s essentially a decision made by employees and their managers, based on geography, function or initiative.” To deliver content to approximately 2,000 personnel around the world every day, the company relies on a combination of instructor-led training and e-learning. More than one-third of Alcatel-Lucent’s employee development is delivered through virtual means, Ginneberge said. 30 Chief Learning Officer • June 2008 • www.clomedia.com http://www.clomedia.com
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