Chief Learning Officer - September 2007 - (Page 34)

clo profile eye on future needs. Smith was instrumental in developing and showing the need for effective upper-leadership education, said Bill Gauld, senior vice president of enterprise services. “I saw the university as key to a change management approach,” Gauld said. “Rita began creating this new direction of the university under the direction of our chairman to focus on really delivering leadership training and education, and it’s blossomed since then.” More than just focus areas, Smith has kept an emphasis on curriculum and delivery — she is responsible for global delivery, as well as managing an annual multimillion-dollar budget. She also oversees senior management meetings in regard to the agenda, as well as how to best facilitate them, which is another way Ingersoll Rand uses Smith’s talent and skill to streamline large endeavors. Gauld attributes this to Smith’s vigilant execution of delivery. “Rita’s got a very strong track record getting the courses delivered, so it has more to do with what’s in the courses and how we are going about doing it, whether we’re going to be continuously counted as a learning company or move more to a teaching company and get more of our executives involved, and actually delivering some of that training,” Gauld said. NAME: Rita Smith, Ph.D. TITLE: Vice President, Enterprise Learning COMPANY: Ingersoll Rand SUCCESSES: • Managed high-potential leadership and general management education, which resulted in a decrease in attrition of these target groups. • Developed an action-learning approach to marketing curriculum that resulted in a multimillion-dollar revenue increase. • Implemented a leader engagement model that engages leaders in learning governance, curriculum advisory, program design, visiting executive fireside chats and visiting instructors in 100 percent of the education solutions. • Created an external learning partner strategy that resulted in increased quality, global consistency, speed to market and an annual six-figure cost reduction. LEARNING PHILOSOPHY: High-value corporate learning is driven by four practices: 1. Engaging leaders to ensure relevance and alignment with strategy. 2. Making certain your learning solutions provide market-driven value and price points — be the preferred vendor for your organization. 3. Applying the same operational and fiscal rigor to your learning organization as the businesses you serve. 4. Embedding learning into the workplace as much as possible and focus on real-world application. Smith’s work to combine the business and learning goals into one large, companywide goal also has impressed Gauld, and she works toward this goal with her team, which includes an associate dean who helps with curriculum and education, an operations staff that reports to her weekly and various third-party partners who work with her to customize content. Gauld said Smith was IRU’s main architect, and she successfully kept the future in mind as she built the university. He also said Smith has been able to sort out and prioritize needs versus demand (the latter of which is always higher) and she’s been able to make IRU an effective brand name of quality leadership training, something employees want to be a part of. “People inside the company know that to advance their careers, they need to be in it,” Gauld said. “That’s not simple to do. You can have great courses, but it’s not always perceived that way in the organization. She’s been able to tie that and almost create a vacuum to suck the talent into the courses.” In addition to her MBA, Smith credits many avenues for her ability to link learning with business — her experience and affiliations over the years have given her a valuable network of resources, in terms of both people and September 2007 I www.clomedia.com I Chief Learning Officer 34 http://www.clomedia.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Chief Learning Officer - September 2007

Editor's Letter Contents Letters to the Editor Strategies Selling up, Selling Down Take Five Imperatives Guest Editorial Learning Solutions Embarking on a Learning Journey Clo Profile Environment CIGNA Service Operations: Making Strategic Change Happen, and Making It Stick Tactics Black & Decker: On-Demand Learning Creation and Consumption Productivity The Army You Have Human Capital Holiday Inn Express: Delivering Critical Training Globally Case Study: Tegan Jones Business Intelligence Case Study: Lisa Rummler Advertisers' Index Editorial Resources In Conclusion

Chief Learning Officer - September 2007

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