Summary Starting with the introduction, introduction, it talks about GE as a company. GE is one of the world's biggest conglomerates with a presence across 160 countries having 11 varied businesses and employee strength of around 307,000. It is the only company with a continuous listing in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It has won many accoladesas and the world's most respected company in appreciation of its people management and sustained profitability. profitability. GE was the first companies to establish a management management development centre to train and develop its employees. In the media, GE has been referred to as a "captain-of-industry "captain-of-industry university university "or“the leadership factory“. GE spent around $1billion on in-house Training and Development (T&D) every year. GE was chosen as the best company for executive development in a survey conducted by Executive E xecutive Development Asso Associ cia ates tes for the year y ear 2005. 20 05.
T&D initiatives at GE. On-the-job-training On-the-job- training had been used at GE since the 1920 and then formal corporate training took shape during Ralph Cordiner’s tenure as CEO . He started restructuring the company by decentralization. decentralization. Cordiner decided that GE would establish its own facility for training. So the management development center was setup in the year 1956, at Crotonville in the village of Ossining, New York. It was the world's first corporate university university and a major milestone milestone in the area of T&D for the company. At this center, GE had trained thousands of employees. During training, people were instructed in the POIM c oncept where a 3500 page Blue Book was published which contained the do’s and don’t’s of management. The center was also used to impart training during time of crisis. In 1981 Jack Welch became CEO and began a major restructuring effort to cut red-tapism within the company which were courses attended by the best employees. In 1983 Welch sanctioned $46 million to build a residential building buildi ng at the center. In 1985 Noel Tichy join the team at Crotonville and brought in the breakthrough concept of action learning. In 1988 the no. of employees being trained at Crotonville each year had risen to 5000. Welch introduced the concept of “workout” .In 1995 GE introduced the six sigma QM program to make GE products practically defects free
Controville’s mission was to educate employees focusing on leadership change; six sigma, e-business and other keep corporate initiatives Communicate and strengthen our employee’s commitment to GE . They
also aimed to build bridges across boundaries by providing a setting for people to interact across businesses, functions and hierarchies. They were to enhance our customer focus; build relationships with strategic customers and other key constituencies. Six sigma training course offered at GE was:Quality overview seminars: basic six sigma awareness Team training: basic tool introduction to equip employees to participate in six sigma teams Master black belt, black belt and team belt training Design for six sigma training: prepare the teams for the use of statistical tools to design it right the first time
MAJOR TYPES OF T & D PROGRAMS AT GE The majority of GE programs are run at WLC(Welch Leadership Centre ), many other programs are also offered at business training centers at Ohio ,New York ,France and India. All the programs are open for enrollment not only for GE employees but also for customers, suppliers and other partners. The programs at WLC were delivered at two main buildings - the education building and learning centre.
The education building has a unique architecture. The learning centre could accommodate around 150 participants at a time and was aptly called the great room´. GE expanded several new courses were launched to meet new requirements. The company wanted to make sure it delivered the best training. The participants are also expected to do their best performance. All successful participants would be given promotions and raises based on their performance in the training programs. The programs offered to GE employees focused on leadership and development aspects. They are divided in to two levels; 1. The entry level programs - The entry level programs are meant for fresh recruits 2. Experienced level programs - The experienced level programs are offered to employees with work experience ENTRY LEVEL LEADERSHIP PROGRAMS These were aimed at developing individuals for leadership positions. The major programs were the commercial leadership program for sales and marketing (CLP), financial management programs (FMP) and information management leadership program (IMLP). There were programs for operations and engineering areas called as the Edison engineering development program(EEDP)and the operations management leadership program(OMLP). FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT PROGRAMME 1. Two year entry level program 2. Hands on experience may include financial planning, accounting, operations analysis, auditing, forecasting, treasury management, commercial finance and six sigma quality. 3. Combines course work, job assignments, and the interactive seminars to equip you with exceptional technical, financial and business skills. 4. Led by senior GE professionals and mentors . 5. Develops world class financial leaders for exciting positions EXPERIENCED LEVEL LEADERSHIP PROGRAMS It offered to employees with work experience. It had 2 major programs - Experienced Commercial Leadership Program (ECLP) and the Human Resources Leadership Program (HRLP). These programs were offered to executives with 2-5 years of experience. ECLP- Consists of four to six months across business rotations within a commercial segment. It was meant for high potential individuals seeking a career in sales and marketing. Among the rotation, 2 focused on marketing while other 2 focused on sales. Recruitment process- 4 stages: Screening of the resume was under taken; It was followed by an online assessment; 45minutes on campus interview and The final stage is to appear for an interview at WLC. HRLP prepared candidate to take up various roles in the human resource function of the company. It consisted of a two year program with three eight month rotational assignments. The courses covered various aspects of business and HR. It helped the participants expand their knowledge base.
FOCUS ON E-LEARNING E-learning comprises all forms of electronically supported learning and teaching. The information and communication systems, whether networked learning or not, serve as specific media to implement the learning process. The term was still most likely be utilized to reference out-of-classroom and in-classroom educational experiences via technology, even as advances continue in regard to devices and curriculum. GE had started implementing online training way back in the year 1998. While it was analyzing the return on investment for one of its courses at GE Aircraft Engineering, the company discovered the cost for training. The company assesses the effectiveness of the online program. It saved the time employees spent away from work. The company did not have to incur any additional costs for travel and related expenses. In2003, GE implemented Learning Management Software (LMS). The website called mylearning@ge. It helped the company imparting training to all its employees globally. LMS enables us to provide real time tracking and global touch with all our employees. The site enabled students to sign on to a personnel development page which had a description of their curriculum. It also had a list of courses from which they could choose courses suited to them. The company could also schedule the resources needed for running various T & D programs through this software. In 2004 almost 200000 GE employees took e-learning courses The courses were a blend of classroom (60%) and online coaching (40%). GE was also developing virtual learning communities´ to enable students to learn through business management simulation. Three to six month after their course was over, students would run virtual business through email, phone calls etc THE IMPACT GE was recognized for its ability to maximize the value of the Enterprise's intellectual capital by producing exceptional leaders. GE never experienced any death of good leaders to take over the reins as and when the need arose. Benefit of GE's focus on training was global consistency to allot businesses. GE diversity transformed into a learning organization where employees could develop themselves continuously. Onthe-job rotational assignments enabled employees to get exposure across business segments and divisions and gave them practical exposure to sharpen their managerial capabilities. Company’s net earnings between 1980 ($1.5 bn) to 2000 ($12.5 bn) increased more than 8 times even with reduced workforce during the same period. Company could generate additional revenue by providing professional training to other organizations in various areas like Six Sigma Work-Out and various business specific skills. Most GE divisions generated huge revenue by under taking training and development activities. Example: - Health care unit of GE build a $80 million state- of-the- art training center to develop educational programs. It offered courses for hospitals to train executives and doctors in handling specialized and advanced technology-based procedure for a fee. Answers 1 Answer) GE which is the world’s biggest conglomerates has had great success in training and developing its workforce in a successful manner. The most unique feature is that GE has its own management development center to train and develop its employees. Here at this learning center Croton Ville, lots of courses are offered to train employees of different backgrounds so that they would get more experience and also gain a promotion. The other feature is for the training program there is residential building at the center. The unique approach that Welch started Action Learning helped the employees to work on real business issues rather than case studies. Through this they could discuss the problem, put their opinions forward
and try to solve the issue. Due to this students got transferred into in-house management consultants giving advice to the top management. The other unique concept Work-Out let employees share their views with university professors or industry consultants. This helped not only in making the employees get ideas and think differently but also learn together. The two places where the programs are delivered like the Education Building and the Learning Center have amphitheaters to accommodate lots of employees with all the advanced audio visual aids to enable effective learning. The courses allowed young college recruits to enroll for the program and get promoted to a high rank. Program like the FMP program was linked to other programs like Corporate Audit Staff which allowed employees to become the internal auditors of the company. This helped them develop critical thinking and give them an overall view of the business. The employees were also allowed to enroll for programs like Certified Public Accountant Program. They were also offered paid internships and co-ops to students to gain practical experience. This helped students to contribute and learn from projects and also interact with the GE employees. The other unique feature is the E-learning training that helped employees around the world to get trained. It not only provided all the courses online so it would be available for all but also provided them with resources needed for training them. All in all, these unique features enable one to get a great deal of exposure across its various business segments and divisions and also practical training so that they could improve on their managerial skills. 2 Answer) The management development centre was set up in the year 1956, at Crotonville ,in the village of Ossing,New York.It was the world’s first corporate university and a major milestone in the area of T&D for the company. Crottonville became not just a training ground for GE executives but an ‘e nergy centre,
powering the exchange of ideas’. Although a majority of GE progr ams were run at WLC, many other programes were run at WLC,many other programes were also offered at business training centers at ohio New York ,and Wisconsin in the U.S. and in China belgaum,france and india. All programs were open for enrollment not only for GE employees but also for customers,suppliers and other partners. In addition, many of the GE business offered tailor made programs at their respective locations. All successful participants would be given promotions and raises based on their performance in the training programs.The wide arrays of programs offered to GE employees focused on leadership and development aspects.they were divided into two levels .the entry level programs were meant for fresh recruits and the experienced level programs were offered to employees with work experience .The entry level leadership programs aimed at developing individuals for leadership positions.the programs involved grooming employees across various locations and functions with the aim of developing them for top positions by the end of the programe.the financial management programe(FMP) was started in the year 1919. This programe was one of the highly recognized finance programs in th world. Numerous fmp graduates eventually became chief financial officers (cfo’s) at other companies.At GE,employees who went t hrough programs like FMP could have accelerated career growth if they performed well.As part of the FMP programe,students took one course in finance like financial foundations,operations,controllership and
strategy on a semi-annual basis.these programs helped the participants dvelop their critical thinking and gave them an overall view of the business. In addition to the FMP, the company also allowed its employees to register for programs like the Certified Public Accountant Program, the leading accounting qualification in the US. The company also offered paid internships and co-ops. to students to gain practical experience. It gave students the opportunity to contribute to and learn from projects and also network with GE employees. Experienced Level Leadership Programs: Two major programs offered under this category were the Experienced Commercial Leadership Program (ECLP) and the Human Resources Leadership Program (HRLP) HRLP prepared candidates to take up various roles in the human resource function of the company. It consisted of a two year program with three eight month rotational assignments. The courses covered various aspects of business and HR. The program groomed participants through two HR assignments and one cross-functional role in finance, quality or business development. It helped the participants expand their knowledge base through extensive contact with peers and also helped them build a professional network. 3 Answer) In the case it is mentioned that the e-learning was very beneficial to the company of GE. The advantages are:
It saved the time employees spent away from work.
It did not have to incur any additional costs
It helped the company imparting training to all its employees globally
Provided time tracking and global touch
It enabled students to sign on to a personnel development page
It had a list of courses from which the students could choose courses
It could also schedule the resources needed for running various T & D programs through this software
The Dis-advantages are:
It lost some effectiveness because of the lack of person There was lack of face to face training
In order to overcome the problems of e-learning, companies must do the following:
They should have interactive online training sessions They should have at least video conferencing
