Paul MacEke, IBM

IBM's transition as a company from its early 1990s image of a tired old dinosaur, to today's forward thinking, technology leading, services driven company, has been one of the most remarkable corporate transformation success stories of recent times.

There are many elements behind this transition, but one was the role by IBM's re-focussed approach to human capital management and the accompanying internal skills and training programs. This included the adoption of e-business technologies and a major shift to e-learning as a strategic delivery vehicle for skills development. Today, over 40% of IBM's internal training program is delivered by e-learning, saving the company over $350M (US) each year.

Learning has become mission critical for IBM. In the words of our recently departed CIO, Lou Gerstner, "I believe that in this networked world the single greatest factor separating winners and losers in all industries and in fact, in all societies, will be the ability to use information and build a culture based on knowledge and the ability to learn."

In this session, the speaker will outline the transition of IBM's skills development and e-learning processes, cover IBM's strategy to learning and discuss the adoption of e-learning techniques as a core component. To demonstrate IBM's approach, the speaker will focus on the transformation of IBM's management training program and the role played by e-learning.