Value realization of management training

Time: Afternoon of September 3, 2003

Venue: Holiday Inn Shanghai Gujing

Moderator: Celine Wei Editor, Editor of "CEConline"

Discussor:

Cai Wen Qian (Chief Consultant of Zhiyue Consulting Co., Ltd.) Chen Yong (Chief Consultant of Shanghai Topology Enterprise Management Co., Ltd.) Shi An (General Manager of Shanghai Weisen Enterprise Management Consulting Co., Ltd.) Zhu Zhiwen (Managing Director of Shanghai Tuyi Manager Consulting Co., Ltd.) Du Zhengguo (Chief Brand Consultant of Shanghai Yingfu Management Consulting Co., Ltd.) Wang Yuanjing (Training Consultant of Shanghai Yingfu Management Consulting Co., Ltd.) Wang Lei (Training Consultant of Modern Excellence Education Group) He Zhaoxia (Training Consultant of Modern Excellence Education Group) Zhou Ronghai (Bixun Technology Management Chief Consultant of Consulting Center) Peng Changlong (Marketing Manager of AMA Asia Pacific Management Training Center) Wang Fei (Director of Marketing Planning Center of Zhongdi Shanghai Education Management Consulting Co., Ltd.) Gao Yujie (Senior Consultant of Soul Sea International Education Group)

The need for Chinese managers to improve their management skills has spawned thousands of companies specializing in management training. From the analysis of training needs to the establishment of training objectives, from the formulation of training plans to the mobilization of training resources, to the objective evaluation of training effects, how should management training companies realize their own competitive value and better serve Chinese companies? More than a dozen leaders and senior consultants from management training companies discussed these issues.

How can I help companies make effective use of management training?

When management training became a fashion, more and more companies began to fall into the misunderstanding of "training for training's sake". Almost all training companies have encountered similar questions from customers: Why is the change in employees not obvious? Why did the training not achieve the expected results? Cai Wenqian, chief consultant of Zhiyue Consulting, who has more than ten years of rich experience in the training industry, pointed out that choosing training simply by following the trend and imitating it will not achieve good results.

Clarify the ultimate goal of customers Cai Wenqian believes that training is not a panacea, but a tool to deliver certain information to the enterprise. For example, she said, sales managers often call to ask the company to provide some sales courses. At this time, the training consultant must first understand what the other party's main intention is: whether to improve sales performance, improve sales process, or change sales attitude, etc., and then design courses in a targeted manner. "Sometimes companies don't know the difference between these courses, so I want to help them clarify the purpose of training."

Chen Yong, who has a comprehensive understanding of the enterprise background topology, said according to his own experience, to do a good job of training, first of all, the customer The company's corporate culture, marketing model, and profit model, so that the entire company's operating system and the founder's personality characteristics should have a considerable understanding. In addition, it is important to know who is being trained. "If there is no basic research on their educational level and preferences, the training will only be superficial."

Peng Changlong of the Asia Pacific Management Training Center agrees. He believes that some concepts and theories that are popular in foreign countries are not necessarily suitable for the actual situation of Chinese enterprises. It is necessary to negotiate training plans with customers based on actual research results. Corporate culture, operating model, and the way in which people collaborate and communicate internally are all factors that determine whether training pays off.

Standardization with Personalization Today's management training consists of two levels. One is standardized courses for enterprises to choose; the other is personalized courses tailored for enterprises. Zhu Zhiwen of Tuyi Consulting Co., Ltd. said that training institutions almost never provide a complete set of pre-designed courses, and they will be more or less adjusted according to customer needs.

Wang Yuanjing of Eagle Fortune likened training consultants to doctors and standardized courses to ready-made prescriptions. She vividly pointed out that doctors prescribe different medicines for each patient, and even for the same medicine, the dosage will vary from person to person. Therefore, personalized management training is more beneficial to the development of the enterprise, and it has proved to be more popular with the final decision makers of the enterprise.

Emphasis on on-the-job training When employees of some enterprises take part in training courses, they often reflect a sense of enlightenment, and their ideas are suddenly enlightened. And after the course, back to work, still continue the inertia of the original way of working. Wang Yuanjing believes that the reason why the trainees feel that the training effect is not good is because the simple concept is easily forgotten if it is not integrated with the work. "Customers must understand that the concepts we teach must be combined with the work system in the company to be effective after a period of time."

Help customers evaluate the effectiveness of training services and evaluations provided later by the company. However, many training companies have pointed out that for some trainings that subtly change work attitudes and management styles, the quantitative evaluation of their effects is a common problem.

Chen Yong and Shi An introduced their experience and said that although the effect of soft training is difficult to judge, it can still be judged according to the degree of correlation with business performance under the premise of clear goals and needs. Du Zhengguo of Eagle Fortune Consulting suggested that a neutral third party could be invited to conduct an effect evaluation, which would help both parties reach a consensus.

Is consultative training developed?

With the increasingly fierce competition in the industry, some training companies have begun to combine consulting and training to seek a breakthrough in the competition. Zhu Zhiwen and others proposed that using the concept of consulting for training can more effectively convey information and value to customers.

Zhou Ronghai, who draws on the function of chief education officer, Bixun Technology, has worked for GE for many years. He believes that the position of GE's Chief Education Officer (CLO) is worthy of reference for enterprises, and it is also a profit model that can be adopted by training companies in the future. The role of the chief education executive is to stand at a strategic level and help the business diagnose what training is needed at this stage.

When a company enters a new business field or a new market environment, it needs to have a corresponding training strategy to follow up. Zhou Ronghai pointed out that training companies should not pay too much attention to details, but should become consultants with a high strategic level, help enterprises to learn how to design a training strategy according to the development strategy of the enterprise, and ensure its smooth implementation. He predicted that the formulation of training strategies is a business with real development value in the future.

Cost is the main problem. Chaoxia He of Modern Excellence has questions about the way out of this training method. She said that the competition in the training market is fierce and disorderly, and in many cases it is necessary to compete for the price of courses. Although Hyundai Excellence currently also provides customers with various pre- and post-program services and evaluations, if consulting training is provided, the company will inevitably invest more energy in researching the characteristics and background of customers, which may exceed the price that customers can afford. limit. "Consulting training is not impossible, but it is more difficult to promote."

Provide resources to create added value Cai Wenqian pointed out that if the training company can create the value that customers really need, both parties will be in the value of the cost problem. Agreed on, then sometimes price is not the biggest issue.

Wang Fei, who is engaged in education and training, agrees with this view. She believes that when clients are looking for training institutions, they often have a budget prepared for the price. "Let him feel that you are serving him, not making money." She introduced Zhongdi's experience and said that she should always emphasize that she is a resource platform, a service provider, a supporter, and the backing of the enterprise. Zhongdi can even provide customers with suitable human resources and product planning. If a training company develops its consulting business reasonably, it creates added value for its clients and at the same time establishes a competitive barrier to protect itself.

How to balance the relationship between training outsourcing and in-house training?

There are two options for corporate training: outsource the training to a professional training company, or use an in-house senior employee as a trainer. How to reasonably use these two methods with their advantages and disadvantages? The training consultants made their own recommendations on this issue.

The training object decided the training method Chen Yong compared his two former clients. One of the clients is an IT company, and the company's employees are proficient in computers. Most of its training can be completed through the internal network communication of the company. The employees share information and exchange experiences on the public network. Another client is a clothing company, and Chen Yong suggested that its general manager hire a training institution to be operated by a formal training consultant. He believes that the choice of outsourcing or in-house training is mainly determined by the respective software and hardware environment of the enterprise, as well as the quality and thinking mode of the training objects.

Training content determines the training method Cai Wenqian and He Zhaoxia believe that it is more appropriate to choose outsourcing for training involving management practices. The management concept is changing with each passing day, and the experience accumulation of most internal trainers is limited to the company, and the degree of integration with the outside world is not high, which is not conducive to learning from others' strong points. At the same time, it is more convincing and easy to be accepted by employees if a third party proposes solutions for the misunderstandings in the internal management of the enterprise.

Zhu Zhiwen suggested that training related to corporate culture and values should preferably be carried out within the company. The cultural values of each enterprise are different, and the internal guidance methods are also different. "In order to save trouble, ask outsiders to explain a set of cultural concepts. Sometimes the conflict is very big and it is useless to the enterprise itself."

Cost It is difficult to distinguish between high and low. Some companies believe that the cost of training outsourcing is higher. He Zhaoxia said that a multinational enterprise client once hoped to reduce costs by replacing outsourcing with in-house training, but after two sessions, they chose outsourcing services again. She calculated an account for the client: "The cost of training a part-time internal trainer for a company basically reached the original budget, and the internal trainer also has many other jobs, so the time cost cannot be measured; For trainers, the cost of enterprise investment is also very high. Therefore, the cost comparison should not only look at the surface."

Wang Fei pointed out that not all enterprises have the ability and energy to train excellent trainers and develop a complete set of training courses . Therefore, it will be more conducive to the rational allocation of resources if it is designed and operated by professional training institutions and shared with many enterprises. Finally, the training consultants suggested that enterprises should compare the advantages and disadvantages of internal and external resources in advance, arrange costs reasonably, and choose the optimal training combination.