CorpU 10th Annual Excellence in Learning & Innovation Benchmarking Study: Learning Brand – Going Beyond Logos
CorpU 12 Dimensions of Learning Excellence and Innovation Framework
Corporate University Xchange, a private membership of senior learning and talent executives, was founded in 1997. Members pay an annual fee in exchange for access to cutting-edge research, practitioner-tested tools, and facilitated peer-to-peer networking. Their “12 Dimensions of Learning Excellence and Innovation Framework” draws upon more than ten years of data from more than 800 companies, as well as over 12 years of research into what actually drives learning excellence. The Corporate University Xchange has identified some of the most important characteristics of these successful learning organizations and these 12 operational skill sets collectively enable learning functions to align, organize, measure, and execute. Each year, The Corporate University Xchange issues its benchmarking report and this year’s, the 10th Annual Learning Excellence and Innovation Benchmarking Study, provides not only timely updates to the robust database but also highlights key past actions of top performing companies and also articulates future trends. This year’s study has interesting findings that serve as guideposts for its member companies. More than 150 companies responded to over 100 questions; the study, in partnership with Harvard Business School Publishing, was conducted from November 2009 and February 2010.
In these three posts, I will be highlighting the key findings in these areas: Learning Structure and Governance; Learning Brand and Technology Architecture. To learn more about membership or the report, visit them at http://www.corpu.com
Highlights re: Learning Brand.
Given the view that a learning brand, like any brand, consists of three things (brand promise, brand marketing and brand experience) and that all three must be present to be a “strong” learning brand, the study asked respondents to weigh in on their learning brand as well as their thoughts on the effectiveness of brand.
In answer to the question, “How do you promote your learning and talent function’s brand promise?” respondents indicated that they:
- Develop and publish a written statement (mission statement) that describes the commitment to improving business results;
- Document and distribute evidence of how our programs have improved business performance;
- Describe and promote stores about the success participants have achieved as a result of programs and services;
- Describe the organization’s commitment to growing talent in literature used to recruit new talent;
- Describe the increased demand for programs and services that reflect a shift in organizational behavior;
- Describe and promote stories about the commitment that influencers (senior leaders, line managers) have to programs and services; and
- Respond aggressively to what we perceived as indifference to our brand.
Those organizations which scored among the highest 20% (“Expert” companies) do these things by a much wider margin in 6 of 7 areas.
One of the key areas addressed in this benchmarking study was that of structure. Three basic structures for corporate learning organizations (centralized, decentralized and federated) all have advantages and disadvantages and no one size fits all nor are most organizations a “pure” example of any one of the three. Regardless of the organization’s structure, there were several key practices that expert companies (those companies which were the top 20% highest scoring companies in the survey). These companies are far more likely to:
For more than 10 years, Training magazine has honored some the most successful employer-sponsored learning and development programs in the world with its Top 125 Awards (or Top 50 or Top 100 in earlier years). Honorees are a “who’s who” of corporate America: Intel, Qualcomm, Verizon, Nationwide, Harrah’s Entertainment, Continental Airlines, Capital One, Bank of America, KPMG, MetLife, Microsoft, Aetna, Sun Microsystems, Best Buy, Wells Fargo, Steel Case, ADP, EMC, McDonald’s, MasterCard, and PricewaterhouseCoopers, which has won the top spot for the last three years. Nine companies have been inducted into the Hall of Fame over the years for having held a “Top 10” spot in four consecutive award lists; they are Booz Allen Hamilton, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, General Mills, IBM, KLA-Tencor, Pfizer, The Ritz-Carlton Company and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals.
Dave Ulrich is a professor of business at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan and co-founder of The RBL Group. He has written fifteen books covering topics in HR and Leadership, 
Wendy Ulrich, Ph.D. is the founder of Sixteen Stones Center for Grown and a licensed psychologist with over twenty-five years of clinical experience with adults and families. She has taught at the University of Michigan and Brigham Young University and has provided training and consulting services for a number of major corporations. The author of Forgiving Ourselves and Weakness is Not Sin along with numerous professional articles and book chapters. She is a popular speaker, touring with Time Out For Women in 2009 and speaks frequently to both lay and professional audiences on the topics of personal growth, healing, spirituality and change. She has served as the president of the Association of Mormon Counselors and Psychotherapists.
Dave Ulrich is a professor of business at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan and co-founder of The RBL Group. He has written fifteen books covering topics in HR and Leadership. His professional focus has addressed questions on how organizations add value to customers and investors through both leadership and strategic human resource practices. In the human resource area, he and his colleagues have worked to redefine and upgrade HR. With his colleagues Wayne Brockbank and Jon Younger, he has articulated how the modern HR organization can be organized into shared services, centers of expertise, and business partners (
Over the past 60 years, many legendary practitioners have made important contributions to the field of training measurement and evaluation. They have shaped our profession and given us the philosophies and tools with which to raise our organizations and ourselves to greater levels of proficiency and effectiveness. In conjunction with the publication of the brand new ASTD Handbook of Measuring and Evaluating Training edited by Dr. Patti Phillips, President and CEO of the ROI Institute, I conducted a series of recorded interviews to capture these thought leaders’ histories, theories, and advice for the profession as well as the creative solutions to the challenges they faced. The commentary contained in these interviews represents the voices of those who have contributed the most in terms of conducting research, applying the methods described in the book, and sharing their knowledge and expertise with others around the world. Earlier, I wrote about the lessons I learned from this rare opportunity to participate in this unique project and the key messages they shared: