The Business of Learning - Second Edition

Over $300 billion dollars are spent annually on corporate learning, but are those dollars being spent wisely to improve not only individual performance but also delivering on the highest priority goals of the organization?

Many companies see learning as strictly an expense. Unless the learning is well aligned to an organization's key goals, it can become an easy target for cutbacks. Managed well, the learning function can become an indispensable, strategic partner with a significant impact on an organization's goals. Managed poorly, learning will be viewed as a cost with questionable value and little connection to the organization's goals or success.

The Business of Learning will provide you with the tools necessary to make learning a strategic and powerful contributor to your corporate success. You will learn:

1. The importance of strategic alignment and how to achieve it
2. How to develop a business case and to create a business plan for learning
3. Fifteen specific steps for running an effective learning business
4. How to manage the metrics, evaluations, and disciplined execution to support your plan
5. How to maximize impact to the bottom line for the investment made

The Business of Learning is like an MBA in a box for management team members interested in building an incredible resource in their organization. Included are tools and examples for every key concept and much more:

1. Step-by-step instructions
2. Coaching advice for managers
3. To-do lists and reading guides
4. Common objections and how to mitigate them
5. A complete sample business plan to guide your own development

The Second Edition updates and expands the work of the first edition, including more explanation, cases, and tables. It adds brand new material, particularly on the treatment of unaligned learning, reaching agreement on the planned impact of learning, and measurement. The new edition also thoroughly explains and incorporates Talent Development Reporting Principles (TDRp) which is the emerging standard for measurement, reporting and management in the field of learning.

David Vance is the former President of Caterpillar University, which he founded in 2001. Until his retirement in January 2007, he was responsible for ensuring that the right education, training and leadership were provided to achieve corporate goals and efficiently meet the learning needs of Caterpillar and dealer employees. Prior to this position, Dave was Chief Economist and Head of the Business Intelligence Group at Caterpillar Inc. with responsibility for economic outlooks, sales forecasts, market research, competitive analysis and business information systems.

Dave received his Bachelor of Science Degree in political science from M.I.T. in 1974, a Master of Science Degree in business administration from Indiana University (South Bend) in 1983, and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Notre Dame in 1988.

Dave was named 2006 Chief Learning Officer (CLO) of the Year by Chief Learning Officer magazine. He also was named 2004 Corporate University Leader of the Year by the International Quality and Productivity Center in their annual CUBIC (Corporate University Best in Class) Awards.

Dave now consults with organizations on learning and performance issues. Dave is a frequent speaker at learning conferences and association meetings. He conducts workshops on managing the learning function, and teaches graduate courses in human capital development at Bellevue University and the University of Southern Mississippi. He also is a trustee and lead independent director for State Farm Mutual Funds, and an advisory board member for Capital Analytics, Inc and Knowledge Advisors. His first book, The Business of Learning: How to Manage Corporate Training to Improve the Bottom Line was published in October 2010.