A 2 Apple from Michael Moe

Michael Moe, one of the most respected VCs in Silicon Valley, and a fair author to boot, has a great little newsletter, titled A 2 Apple which means from an A-round of funding to a great successful company.  His August 30, 2016 GSV Media post, entitled "Follow the leader" extols Bill Campbell's 75th birthday this week, with some appropriate laudatory comments and perspective.

I'll let you read the Campbell part -- you probably know he was a great football coach before coming to Silicon Valley, and then at Apple, then CEO of Claris, and then Chairman of Intuit (among other things), he taught many of today's CEOs 'how to do it'      He's a giant in terms of human growth and development potential here in 'our town'

But the thing that caught my eye in this issue focuses on Jack Welch and his "Welch Way" of growing and developing leaders.  In particular, there is a great scorecard for the Top Ten business schools in America, their costs and time and 'payback' compared to the Jack Welch Management School.  Tuition for 5 of the 10 schools is a remarkably 'close' number = exactly $62,000 each.  Two are higher at $63,000; one is at $59,000; and two 'cheap ones' (both public institutions) are at a bargain $52,000.  The Jack Welch Management Institute though is just $20,000.

In terms of ROI, Wharton (#3) is worst, just 6% in your first year 'out of school'     Harvard and Stanford are 3rd and 4th worst; the Welch School at 20% is second, just behind Dartmouth at 21%

In terms of total payback time, the Welch School graduates earn their money back in just 2 years; none of the Top Ten can claim less than four years.

WHAT DO THEY DO DIFFERENTLY?

Well, they use what they learned at GE.  To wit: GE spends over $1 billion per year on training and education programs for 150,000 professionals around the World. Employing a variety of in-person and on demand formats, GE organizes learning around three key buckets: Leadership, Core Skills Development, and Industry-Specific Expertise.

HP does this, or at least DID THIS, for years.

I know something about the GE program--when microprocessors appeared on the scene, I had just published a book about designing with them.  GE 'found me' -- I was then a General Manager for an HP division -- and they persuaded me  (and my HP management) to let me "teach" a new course on CORE SKILLS to their engineers.  

We did this via a course, done in Videotape format with TRAIN the TRAINER methods.  I did 33 days of Hollywood filming, which created something like 80 hours of classroom time.  And then I 'trained' 24 'trainers' who worked for GE.  Over the next 24 months, they taught the course to 40,000 engineers, winning an IEEE Innovative Training Award, but more importantly, rejuvenated their engineering staffs for the new Digital Age.

Why Michael Moe is interested in all of this, among other things, is that his group, GSV Media, has invested in a new training company, CorpU.  CorpU is transforming talent development for the 21st century through research, consulting, and education. A partner with the world’s leading businesses and academic organizations, CorpU is pioneering new approaches to virtual learning communities that connect people to capture knowledge, solve problems, generate ideas, teach and learn.

I believe he's onto something.  We NEED more innovative education, and MOOCs are just one way. This might be even better, addressing the core need for leaders.