Continuing our series of interviews exploring the effects of the current business climate on TRW and the wider industry, Robert Lightfoot, TRW’s European marketing and purchasing director, explains how TRW is striving to become a true learning organisation.
Q: What do you mean by the term ‘Learning Organisation’?
A: ‘Learning Organisation’ is a term that simply encapsulates how an organisation evolves by continuously learning. It is about utilising and sharing internal resources, it is about the development and empowerment of the employee. It’s about training and education in order to better serve the customer. Simply - the better you serve the customer, the more successful your business will be. Organisational strategy is rarely talked about, but it is key to a group functioning properly. The larger the company, the more global its reach, the more important it is to get this strategy right. The people who contribute to TRW’s success are key. We want to furnish them with the tools they need for lifelong learning, to create a seamless and inspiring communication flow. We need to involve all employees in our evolution, because our success, and that of our customers, depends on it.
Q: What factors led you to adopting this strategy?
A: Operating within a difficult business climate coupled with exponential technological advancements and a more demanding market led us down this road and towards implementing an innovative strategy based on continuous learning. Aware of the demands these developments placed on the teams involved, we wanted to provide the best support possible to everyone that contributes to TRW’s success.
Q: So, what did you do and what were the timeframes involved?
A: First of all, let me make it quite clear that this isn’t a project with a start a middle and an end – it is an ongoing and continuously evolving process, requiring a complete cultural change.
In 2007 and 2008 with the help of the Grundl Akademie, a German group specialising in leadership, we re-focussed under the principle ‘Leading simple’ and set about reinforcing our leadership values; transparently so all employees knew what was going on at every stage. This long-term process requires a complete cultural change, which we are undertaking very carefully. Motivation and understanding are absolute imperatives for the success of our projects.
In 2009, taking into account restrictions on frequent travellers, a complete “e-learning” programme was set up with two levels of training dependent on customer exposure: basic, for anyone, intermediary for the sales teams and management. We introduced 16 flexible courses covering: product information, technologies and commercial knowledge. Each course is validated with a test and certification. It’s a proactive and flexible system and the feedback loop enables us to focus on continuous improvement.
Web seminars, ‘Webinars’, have been introduced in-house. Run many times, to capture the widest possible audience, they are interactive and based on the Question–Answer technique. About 40 were organised in 2009.
Q: How will you develop this strategy as we move further into 2010?
A: There will be more webinars and further e-learning programmes are being developed as we speak. In addition, we are investigating the use of innovative Learning Management System (LMS) software. This will enable seamless management of learning across the whole division. Internally the individual has a tailor made program of mandatory and optional learning activities linked directly to his roles and the defined competencies. Implementation of this highly flexible system is scheduled for 2011.
Q: What about TRW’s longer-term plans? How do you envisage TRW’s LO status serving customers and aiding business growth in the coming years?
A: The end goal is to give customers the benefit of TRW’s acquired experience and to be able to offer them, should they wish, a complete system also offering seamless learning, information and training.
The days when an equipment manufacturer was simply a parts supplier are well and truly over. We need to deliver solutions that help our customers support their customers. We need to establish smooth processes to make it easier to share information. We feel that the acquisition of knowledge in the widest sense of the term is a good way to create a network consisting of and brought to life to by every single person involved with TRW, both inside and outside the company.