Martijn Rademakers - Corporate Universities: Drivers of the Learning Organization

CORPORATE UNIVERSITIES

Organizations constantly need to adapt themselves to stay aligned with an ever-changing and increasingly complex environment. Corporate Universities puts smart learning at the forefront, with strategies to secure alignment between organization and environment, which need both speed of learning and learning in the right direction. Across the globe, corporate universities have emerged as vehicles of such strategy-driven learning.

Corporate Universities bridges the gap between the disciplines of strategic management and corporate learning, combining general strategy with the concept of corporate universities, which, to date, has predominantly been an HR topic. Readers will find new concepts, as well as generic corporate university strategies to link corporate strategy to organizational learning. In-depth cases show how corporate universities are used to renew, transform, and optimize strategy and include important lessons learned by corporate university executives, from both small and global companies, as well as governmental organizations across different industries.

Written for academics in strategy, HRD, and organizational behavior disciplines, as well as practicing managers alike, Corporate Universities is the first book that offers a consistent set of concepts, frameworks, and cases to integrate general strategy with organizational learning.

Martyn F. Rademakers is Managing Director of the Center for Strategy & Leadership and has been a Research Associate at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University, Rotterdam.

CORPORATE UNIVERSITIES

Drivers of the learning organization

Martyn F. Rademakers

First published 2014
by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2014 Martyn F. Rademakers

The right of Martyn F. Rademakers to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Rademakers, Martyn.

Corporate universities : drivers of the learning organization/Martyn F Rademakers.

page cm

1. Employer-supported education. 2. EmployeesTraining of. 3. Organizational learning. 4. Knowledge management. I. Title.
HF5549.5.T7R235 2014

658.3124dc23

2013030757

ISBN: 978-0-415-66054-9 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-07398-8 (ebk)

Typeset in Bembo

by RefineCatch Limited, Bungay, Suffolk

For Kris, Eva, and Bas, from whom I learn so much, every day

CONTENTS

Figures

Exhibits

Tables

Martyn F. Rademakers PhD is Managing Director of the Center for Strategy & Leadership, an internationally operating executive education and consulting company based in the Netherlands. Martyn has been a Research Associate at the Rotterdam School of Management Erasmus University, Rotterdam, and a Visiting Professor at various business schools in Europe and Asia. He is a co-founder and board member of the Dutch Foundation for Corporate Universities.

Ron Meyer PhD is Professor of Corporate Strategy at TiasNimbas Business School, Tilburg University, and Managing Director of the Center for Strategy & Leadership. His research is focused on the connection between strategy development and leadership, with a strong emphasis on the role of top management in driving corporate learning.

Ron authored about corporate university value creation and learning formats.

Han van der Pool is a corporate university veteran with more than thirty years of experience gained during his work at international organizations in the public, logistic, manufacturing, retail, academic, and consultancy sectors in the USA, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Africa.

Han co-authored about corporate university value creation and learning formats.

Paul Hunter DBA is Founder and Chief Executive of the Strategic Management Institute based in Melbourne, Australia. He is a frequent speaker, educator, and provider of executive education courses on strategy. He is currently authoring a book on strategy practice, titled The 7 Inconvenient Truths of Strategy.

Paul co-authored about Mars University.

Nick van Dam PhD is Chief Learning Officer, Global Talent for Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited. He is an internationally recognized consultant, author, speaker, and thought leader on organizational learning & leadership development.

Nick co-authored about Deloitte University.

Bill Pelster is Principal in the Deloitte Consulting LLP Human Capi tal Practice leading integrated talent strategies. He is the former CLO of Deloitte.

Bill co-authored about Deloitte University.

Hans Wierda is the Functional Director of Major Projects in Centrica Energy, Windsor, UK, and responsible for Project Management Assurance and Competence Development. He led the development, implementation, and optimization of the Shell Project Academy between 2006 and 2009.

Hans co-authored about Shell Project Academy.

Ruud Polet is a veteran in corporate communications leadership development, change, and learning, and former Global Director of ING Business School. Currently, he is responsible for a global Communications & Change program at Royal Philips Electronics to support the creation of a global Corporate University.

Ruud co-authored about ING Business School/ING Bank Academy.

Carin Termeer is a leadership development professional and executive coach and is known for her deep corporate experience and warm authenticity. Until 2012, she was the Director of Leadership Development of ING Business School.

Carin co-authored about ING Business School/ING Bank Academy.

The origins of this book stem from curiosity. Coming across the phenomenon of corporate universities for the first time in 2000, they immediately evoked a desire in me to learn more about them. As a strategist, I wondered how corporate universities could contribute to the competitive and cooperative strength of organizations. Research on the crossroads of strategy and learning and workshops and conversations with senior managers, corporate university leaders, advisors, and academics helped to figure out some of the answers to my questions. These answers gave rise to new questions and they also triggered ideas and initiatives that led me to write this book.

The process of writing a book is somewhat paradoxical. It is usually a lonely exercise for the author, although it involves many people who are indispensable for its success. This book could not have been written without the knowledge, commitment, craftsmanship, experience, energy, and enthusiasm shared so generously by so many people.