How Universities are Proving Good for Business

Wescom Credit Union is on a roll. Membership of the Pasadena-based organization has jumped more than 35 percent over the past three years to 250,000, making it one of the largest credit unions in the country. It has 38 branches in Southern California, more than US$3 billion in assets and the most effective advertising money can’t buy – word of mouth.

However, what Wescom doesn’t have are the extra resources to train scores of senior managers quickly enough to meet the company’s goals for rapid expansion. Although Wescom provides ongoing corporate education for all of its employees at Wescom University in Pasadena, the company needed specific instruction in key areas. To meet this need, Westcom has, like a growing number of companies, turned to executive education programs.

Courses tailored to management needs
In 2003, Lucia Soh, who had recently taken over as Manager of Wescom University, researched an array of executive education programs and chose USC Marshall School of Business Office of Executive Education because of its state-of-the-art amenities and its dedicated, results-oriented faculty and staff.

Soh met with Jody Tolan, Director of Program Design and Development at USC Marshall School of Business Office of Executive Education, who in turn worked with the university’s faculty to custom-design a program that would provide a common vocabulary and shared way of thinking for Wescom’s senior management team.

The program was under way by 16 February 2005, and the first group of Wescom’s senior management staff – ranging from branch managers to senior vice presidents – attended customized courses at the USC campus for eight hours a day, every other week, over the course of the following eight weeks. By the end of June, two groups consisting of 75 management-level staff had completed the program, with a third group of managers scheduled to attend in the months ahead.

Learning that translates to the real world
“The program was a great value on so many levels in terms of creating a foundation that’s understood for the entire team,” said Wescom Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Jane Wood, who was among the program’s participants. “We weren’t looking for a program that would be just an exercise of sending people to class, then having them come back to work and move on. We wanted to achieve sustainable learning that could become ingrained in our culture and we saw that happen with this program immediately,” she adds.

“From a learning perspective, if you don’t anchor a program around something students can work with on a day-to-day basis, something that they live and breathe daily, they won’t be able to tie it to anything and then it’s all just theory,” Soh said, adding that she was impressed with the faculty’s ability to take broad information and make it relate to Wescom’s strategic goals.

Specialty programs growing in popularity
Wescom’s experience at USC is hardly unique. Corporate interest in specially designed education courses is climbing worldwide and USC Marshall is forecasting 50 percent growth in the number of custom programs offered to corporations by early 2006, according to Tolan.

It’s a trend that is embraced by USC Marshall, whose faculty members carefully consider each client’s objectives before developing an optimal curriculum geared toward results. “We don’t teach theory in a vacuum,” says Mark Wilbur, Associate Dean at USC Marshall School of Business Office of Executive Education, adding: “It’s relevant, it’s action-oriented and it provides attendees the skills and tools they can apply the very next day.”

The economic recovery explains some, but not all, of the increased interest in the programs. “Companies are faced with demographic realities,” comments Tolan. “Baby boomers are retiring, there are lean management periods and a shortage of managers to take on leadership roles. Executive education programs can help companies accelerate the move into leadership and senior management positions,” she continues.

Don Kuhn, Executive Director of the International University Consortium for Executive Education (UNICON), a worldwide organization of major business schools offering post-degree executive education programs, says the growth and popularity of customized executive education programs reflects corporations’ need for specialized information. The State of Executive Education Business survey presented at the UNICON Fall 2004 Conference found that 74 percent of the 43 executive education schools responding reported growth in custom program revenue in 2004, up from 65 percent of a year earlier.

Companies offer career-path support
“Customized programs also help companies show their interest in individual corporate growth and development,” notes Kuhn. “I think some members of the newer workforce are saying: ‘What will I gain from a particular company? How will I grow in my job?’”

The number of open enrollment executive education programs offered to the public is also rising, according to Thomson Peterson’s survey of programs in its 2005 edition of Bricker’s International Directory of Executive Education and Development Programs in the United State, Canada and Abroad. The directory featured 1334 programs from 123 institutions in its 2005 edition, exceeding the 1064 programs from 108 institutions in its 2000 edition.

The most sought after program is management, followed by programs in leadership, according to Bricker’s. That’s consistent with USC Marshall’s experience, according to Karla Wiseman Bright, Director of Programs and Operations for the USC Marshall School of Business Office of Executive Education. “Our most popular course, the Management Development Program, is taught by a team of faculty who teach in the MBA programs at USC,” says Wiseman Bright, adding: “The attendees are managers and professionals who have no formal training and who find the real-world applications in the course stimulating.”

The USC Marshall School of Business has also experienced an increase in open enrollment program offerings, which ballooned from two programs in 2004 to 14 in 2005. The open enrollment market has grown significantly in the past two years, following a post-9/11 drought. “A lot of companies didn’t want employees to travel or to send them to programs. It’s taken this long for companies to become more comfortable with spending again,” observes Tolan.

Programs reflect workplace change
The growth in open enrollment and customized program offerings at USC and other executive education providers reflects the realization that changes in the business landscape are coming faster than ever. “As our world becomes more complex, greater skills in strategy and understanding are needed,” says Wescom’s Wood. “It requires constant fine-tuning.’’

Orith Farago, a former reporter for the Los Angeles Daily News, and is alsoa freelance writer. Tobias Deehan, Coordinator, USC Marshall School of Business Office of Executive Education alsocontributed to this article.