Are you planning to create your own business academy? There are a number of key factors that are important to any business school that wants, over time, to be valuable to their internal customers and build increased business acumen.
Increased demands from several quarters.
Increasingly high demands are placed on suppliers today, especially from two different directions: the customers and the competitors.
First, the customer demands that their suppliers be more innovative so that more value is created for them. And by that I mean real customer value - ie, the customer gets higher sales, lower costs or becomes more efficient.
The second requirement comes from competitors. If you do not both short-term and long-term develop your customers, there are competitors who are willing to do it for the customer - every day of the week. The best way to defend one's customer is to develop the customer, all the time, instead of only caring for the customer.
The increasingly high demands placed on a supplier regarding customer development result in a need to increase the employees' knowledge of above all account management, strategic/tactical sales, increased business acumen and negotiation.
This in turn places demands on the internal organization to have a structured process to further develop its employees' way of working and these skills.
It is relatively common for organizations to start and operate so-called business schools (Business Academy) - with the aim of meeting the increased demands from customers and competing companies. How these business schools are structured can look a little different depending on the organization's size, market, focus, internal policy/guidelines, etc.
Critical success factors This also means that the success factors shift from organization to organization. However, there are a number of key factors that are important for all business schools that want, over time, to be valuable to their internal customers and build increased business acumen.
First, one should realize that starting a business school tends to become a catalyst for a change journey for the organization in many other areas. It is not uncommon for organizations to create new questions in the following areas: CRM, KPIs, reporting, coaching, organizational structure, materials, etc.
Once an internal business academy is created, there are many pitfalls. To avoid these, here are a number of success factors for a business academy. Experience shows that only one of these factors can save a business academy venture.
Ownership by CEO / top management. This is especially important in the start-up of a business academy. Without direct ownership by the CEO or specific directives from top management, the program will be questioned when resources/time need to be used. The Business Academy will be pitted against other priorities and initiatives within the organization.
Understand training and business needs, update over time. Organizations need to understand the organization's current situation. What problems and challenges do you have when it comes to business acumen and how do you want to change this. A lack of clarity creates a lack of clarity in why, what, in what way, and how to increase the skills of your employees. The business need must come from the recipient (the sales organization) and not, for example, L&D/HR. It is also important to update the training over time as challenges and needs change for the organization.
Role-specific and relevant training. All training needs to be relevant to the respective participants. One education does not suit everyone. Different workouts have different training plans and structures. The training needs to be role-specific and tailored to needs. In addition to this, the training needs to be linked to the participants' individual business challenges in order to really increase the learning. If this is not done, the risk is high for the syndrome "in addition to the training that I don't know why I go".
Learning is a process and not an activity. Training employees and changing their behavior around business acumen is not an activity. Learning is a process that takes time and a business academy needs to plan and structure itself accordingly. How does learning take place in your particular organization? What conditions exist and what does a training plan need to look like to have the greatest effect on learning.
Coaching. Coaching in everyday life creates learning over time. Training wants to stimulate a change in working methods, i.e. changed behaviour. Coaching supports training and increases learning. Some studies show that training is up to 4 times more effective with subsequent coaching. Simply put – coaching between colleagues and manager-employees is absolutely crucial to bring about a change in the behaviors of a larger group.
Endurance to the program. Increasing business acumen in an organization takes time. A business academy, its management and its employees need to work long-term to ensure that the school provides the sought-after behavioral change. Business academies also need to be regularly updated and adapted to the current business needs in order to be relevant. All goals and investments in a business academy must reflect this.
Measure the effects of the program. Don't forget to measure the results of the training, both short and long term. Set relevant and overall goals for the business academy. But also set goals for each program and follow these up over time. There are different ways and levels to measure training programs. An example is Kirkpatrick's four levels for measuring education: measuring the experience, measuring the learning/knowledge, measuring behavior change, measuring the outcome.
Good luck developing your programs to improve your employees' knowledge, work methods and skills, regardless of whether it is done as a one-off program or within the framework of a business academy.
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