Chief Learning Officer - July 2008 - (Page 21)

IN PRACTICE THE HOME DEPOT: ACCELERATED LEADERSHIP study sponsored by the International University Consortium for Executive Education (UNICON) measured and found an exceptional return on investment (ROI) for a custom executive education program developed by the faculty at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. The results of the study were published in April 2005. The custom program studied was an accelerated leadership program (ALP) designed for Home Depot. The stated purpose of the program was to: A • 20 percent growth in operating proﬁts. • 29 percent increase in proﬁts. • Saved $2.1 million in search fees. • 20 percent decrease in workers’ compensation expenses. BLOCK 2: OPERATIONAL • Saved 77,000 workdays. • Accident-related transports down 44 percent. • Impacted whole division’s forecasting, scheduling, stock basics, etc. BLOCK 3: STRATEGIC • Using strategic framework and return on invested capital, made decision on merchandising a new store that generated a $5 million increase in proﬁts. • Spent much more time in strategic issues and permeated all levels of organization. • Prepare director-level managers for promotion to ofﬁcer positions in the company within three years. • Enhance participants’ business acumen and leadership capabilities. • Provide an environment in which participants can develop relationships with peers from across the company. • Provide a forum for senior executives to articulate the company’s vision and strategic priorities. In 2002, Goizueta conducted two of these ALP programs, each with 30 ofﬁcer candidates selected by Home Depot. Each course consisted of two ﬁve-day classroom experiences, separated by a gap of four to six weeks. The cost of the course was $10,000 per student, for a $600,000 total tuition investment. In 2004, when Peter A. Topping, Ph.D., of the Goizueta Business School began his research on the ROI of the program, 55 of the 60 participants from the 2002 classes were still employed at Home Depot. Those 55 employees became his “experimental group.” He then chose 33 Home Depot employees with similar proﬁles for his “control group.” Based on his research, Topping’s study produced a four-block analysis of ﬁnancial, operational, strategic and leadership results that could be attributed directly to the ALP programs. BLOCK 4: LEADERSHIP • Added item on horizontal thinking to performance review for managers. • Directors now dedicate 70 percent of time to developing people. • 84 percent increase in bonuses attributable to cascaded “critical thinking” among direct reports. Topping wrote that Home Depot “absolutely” got a good return on its direct investment of $600,000. The study found the payoff of the program to be longer term and subject to a range of externalities that made it hard to isolate the effects of this single developmental activity on business performance. However, Topping concluded that “adding up the selfreported ﬁnancial gains resulting from the participants’ experiences gives a ﬁgure easily in the tens of millions.” He concluded that “even if the ALP were responsible for just 10 percent of those ﬁnancial gains, it would provide an exceptional ROI — in excess of 100 percent.” CLO – Frank R. Lloyd, Ph.D. BLOCK 1: FINANCIAL • $80 million in sales growth. Naturally, instructors feel comfortable in that structure because it’s theirs. But if businesses are going to receive the relevant education they need to compete and succeed in the face of demographic challenges, global competition and the accelerating pace of change, it’s going to be the responsibility of CLOs to seek out changes in the delivery of the educational product and the responsibility of educational institutions to listen, question, challenge and advocate. In other words, it’s up to academic institutions and businesses to collaborate in developing and delivering content in a way that will have an immediate and lasting impact. At ﬁrst blush, this sounds like a revolutionary con- cept. But all it really means is that we have to communicate with each other. CLOs need to be clear about their needs, scope and parameters, and educational providers need to understand CLOs’ needs and buying criteria. They have to establish honest, business-like relationships based on two-way communication. Once this is achieved, businesses can access a university’s research-based content and a learning environment that provides a safe place to think and act differently. More importantly, they can access instructors who facilitate participants’ learning using their own experiences, as well as external perspectives — instructors who challenge participants to think broadly and innovatively, enable them to reconnect with funChief Learning Ofﬁcer • July 2008 • www.clomedia.com 21 http://www.clomedia.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Chief Learning Officer - July 2008

Chief Learning Officer - July 2008 Contents Imperatives Selling Up, Selling Down Strategies Take Five A Customer-Driven Approach to Molding Tomorrow’s Leaders The Home Depot: Accelerated Leadership CLO Profile Birth of a Salesman: Selling Learning to Solve Business Issues Selling Learning’s Potential at Siemens Transform Corporate Learning With a User Network Wiki Training Increases Productivity for RMC Vanguard Mortgage Lessons From the Feds: Mapping Learning to Strategic Initiatives Department of Labor Centralizes Content Synchronous and Asynchronous: What’s in a Name? Coping With Cultural Barriers to E-Learning The Manager’s Responsibility for Employee Learning Case Study Business Intelligence In Conclusion

Chief Learning Officer - July 2008

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.