Business is on the edge of a new economic age that is already increasingly complex and unpredictable. Economic power shifts, emerging markets, natural disasters, scarcity of resources, population explosion, regulation, fear of double-dip recession all compound the challenges around growth and sustainability.
The pressures on business have seldom been as intense as they are today. Companies are under pressure, more than ever, to manage and maintain their reputation, manage their talent and keep pace with emerging technologies.
In 2004 Hewlett Packard embarked on further development of its excellence culture which was already highly focused on continuous improvement. It built on its existing culture by integrating continuous improvement with ‘continuous learning’.
The traditional CI approach was to ensure they kept up with changes and events. Focus on continuous learning helped the company adopt the notion that it needed to move ahead of change by providing and creating readiness through learning and development, not just reacting to events.
This is an example of an organisation linking the management of change with its strategic goals by aligning people development directly with business output. If used to drive strategy, training and development itself can be competitive advantage.
This article first appeared in the Mitchell Phoenix Newsletter, Summer 2011. To subscribe, click here