Training Industry Quarterly - Fall 2008 - (Page 36) MEET JOSH BLAIR earning leaders in organizations often hold a variety of unofficial titles. And in some cases, like Josh Blair at TELUS, the second-largest telecommunications company in Canada, even the vaunted chief learning officer title is just a stepping-stone. Now executive vice president of human resources for TELUS, Blair started in the company back in 1995 as an engineer. He moved around within the company over the next several years, working in service development, marketing and information technology. At one point, Blair even ran a startup company TELUS helped to launch. One positive benefit of moving offices so often: Blair found himself with a strong knowledge of how the company worked. That came in handy in 2001, when he was named chief learning officer in part because of his background in both technology and staff development. Blair guessed his CLO work would last under two years, but he enjoyed it enough to keep the title through early 2006, when he became SVP of HR Support. Then, in Fall 2007, Blair took over the EVP of HR role. Today, Blair is happy to have held the learning leader position on his route to HR leadership. “I think the head of HR needs to be chief organizational development person to a degree, and I’m very thankful I’ve had that past,” Blair said. That’s understandable given the depth and breadth of Blair’s position. TELUS employs 35,000 professionals, with about 28,000 PEER REVIEW L in Canada and the other 7,000 working internationally. The company is projected to have more than $9.5 billion in revenues in 2008. “The global reach obviously always adds complexity,” Blair said. “You have different cultures, different labor markets, etc., etc.” The changing nature of the telecom industry is also a factor in Blair’s work. In North America, he said, there’s an all-out assault on the traditional telecom industry from competitors like cable and wireless providers. “The intensity of new competition is just exponentially increasing year after year,” Blair said. “I think the other big challenge for us, which I think is true of any big industry in North America, is that labor markets are getting tighter and tighter. The overall goal of finding and developing talent is becoming more complicated than in the past.” Learning, of course, is one solution to help meet those challenges, and Blair said he’s fortunate to have strong support from the CEO and executive team. “Learning plays a huge role in meeting those challenges,” Blair said. “In our world it’s gotten to the point where it’s almost impossible to have a technology advantage or a process advantage. The only way you can have an advantage is through your people – be better at customer service, better at executing, better at collaborating. So your learning function becomes core as to whether you have a competitive advantage or not.” 36 Training Industry Quarterly, Fall 2008 / A Training Industry, Inc. ezine / www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ http://www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ
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