Training Industry Quarterly - Fall 2011 - (Page 38)

“Virtual training is going to evolve and be the centerpiece of how people learn.” – Ron Schanze, Pﬁzer not broken,’” said Kern. “It was a blend of the perfect storm of how to keep cost down while continuing to meet training needs.” This figurative tug of war between classroom versus virtual was taking shape, prompting the idea to put the stakeholders through a virtual training course to fully see it, feel it, participate in it. Not only did the stakeholders’ mindset need to shift, but the company culture needed to be open to other delivery channels as well. The workforce played a large part in the reason to go virtual. “In today’s workforce many have two working family members and can’t easily leave home,” said Ron Schanze, senior director and team leader of Pfizer representative training. “The workforce was used to learning in a virtual format if they’ve gone for MBA or undergraduate degrees online and they were more than accepting of it, even more so than the business in general.” Once stakeholders, including Compliance, approved the method and saw the positive metrics from the pilot, the program launched, propelling the Pfizer training program into the virtual world. The first virtual training event yielded $3 million in cost avoidance. The quantitative metrics were also met with high marks, matching those of classroom-based training with ratings of 4.0 to 4.1 on a 5-point scale. With a successful launch under its belt, Pfizer was now a part of this virtual world. “What’s been interesting is the quantitative metrics topped it off, which many ABOUT … Tim Kern Title/Company: Vice President Training, Pﬁzer How Long Have You Been in Your Current Post? 7 Years What Are Your Top Focus Areas? How training supports the transformation of the Commercial Model in Pharmaceutical Sales. Who is Your Professional Role Model? Do not have a single role model, I try to learn from the best leaders. Every leader has diﬀerent strengths and areas of development. Any Words of Inspiration for Future Training Leaders? The job has never been more important! If I Weren’t in Learning, I’d… be coaching or training standard bred horses. ABOUT … Ron Schanze Title/Company: Senior Director, Team Leader/ Pﬁzer Representative Training How Long Have You Been in Your Current Post? 14 Years What Are Your Top Focus Areas? 1) Utilizing technology to provide training with identical metrics to Classroom training. 2) Providing ﬂexible product and sales training solutions in a rapidly changing business environment. Who is Your Professional Role Model? I like to learn from multiple leaders across many diﬀerent industries. I admire those leaders that have overcome adversity and are inspirational in transforming their companies/organizations to a new level of performance. Any Words of Inspiration for Future Training Leaders? “Adversity elicits talent and innovation which under prosperous conditions may have remained dormant.” If I Weren’t in Learning, I’d… be selling in a highly technical ﬁeld. 38 Training Industry Quarterly, Fall 2011 / A Training Industry, Inc. ezine / www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ http://www.trainingindustry.com/TIQ

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Training Industry Quarterly - Fall 2011

Training Industry Quarterly - Fall 2011
From Where I Sit: Back to the Basics
Table of Contents
Ad Index
The Learning GPS
Work that Stretches: The Best Teacher
The Promise and Peril of Social Enterprise
Technical Training: How is it Different?
Companies Press 'Play' on Training Games
Redefining the 'e' in e-Learning
Essential Components for Effectively Training a Global Workforce
Five m-Learning Considerations for Your Talent Management Strategy
Instructional Design: Learning Meets Technology
Improving Training: Thinking Like a Game Developer
Casebook: Pfizer: Moving Product Sales Training Online
Why is Mobile Learning Not More Popular?
Tweet Suite
Company News
Closing Arguments: The Three T's

Training Industry Quarterly - Fall 2011