UTC backs its purchasing professionals with educational resources
UTC prepares leaders of tomorrow
By Nancy Hitchcock -- Purchasing, 9/7/2006 2:00:00 AM
UTC believes not only in manufacturing products that propel people—elevators, escalators, engines for aircraft—it also provides programs that propel employees in their personal and professional growth as well.
“We give employees the tools to take charge of their careers,” says Danny Cronin, manager of leadership development, UTC supply management operation. “We have a drive within our corporation that wants people to keep moving, keep learning, keep developing.”
One program the company offers is the Employee Scholar Program (ESP) that pays for employees to pursue any degree at any time. Since its inception in 1996, the company has invested $529 million in educating its employees and seen more than 18,000 of them in 45 countries receive degrees. Another incentive for employees is that when they complete a degree they receive $10,000 in shares of UTC stock.
One employee who has taken advantage of this program is Marlene Kearse-Parks who has completed her bachelors degree (BA) and her MBA, with a concentration in supply chain management while working at the company. In five years she has advanced from administrative associate to manager for global general procurement at Carrier.
“The program has allowed me to grow personally and professionally and to bring value and leadership to UTC, and specifically to Carrier,” says Kearse-Parks. In her current role, Kearse-Parks oversees indirect procurement at Carrier. She looks for opportunities to drive policy, process, and price by aligning Carrier when possible with all of the UTC companies when working with a supplier (UT500 program). For instance, a current key initiative is driving the selection and implementation of a global e-procurement system. Kearse-Parks also has reviewed best practices in MRO (maintenance, repair and operations) integration in the U.S. and applied them to plants around the globe, including those in located China.
Kearse-Parks says she’s added value to UTC by applying what she learned while pursuing her MBA directly to her job. For a graduate school project, for example, Kearse-Parks worked with a team to analyze Carrier’s acquisition integration plan, including outsourcing strategies, purchasing savings and non-product equipment disposition. Carrier later consolidated products across plants in the U.S. and moved work into Mexico, a lower cost market. This was a result of her course work.
“I think offering the program motivates employees to continuously pursue education opportunities,” says Kearse-Parks. “I think it speaks volumes to why UTC and the companies that make up the UTX stock strive to be number-one globally in the markets they serve. It’s not just words—they’re putting their money where their mouth is, so to speak.”
In fact, Kearse-Parks is once again looking at the opportunity in front of her and is considering pursuing another master’s degree in either project management or quality systems.
In addition to the Employee Scholar Program contributing to the culture of employee development, a Learning Portal—launched in 2000—provides an abundance of information on courses, seminars, conferences, and other tools that help boost job performance.
The supply management role expands
Over the past 10 years as business has evolved, UTC has expanded the career opportunities for supply management professionals and, at the same time, provided resources to support their professional development. After Kent Brittan assumed the position of vice president of supply management, the company defined the skills that would be required for employees to operate more effectively in this role and established a core curriculum.
“We understand that the core of supply management or procurement is about the relationship with the supply base,” says Cronin. “We focused on defining the skills that would be required for that level of interface by our employees with their counterparts. We came up with
influencing skills, communication skills, and leadership skills, in addition to the core fundamental skills of a good buyer. That was a fundamental piece of how to develop our employees.”
Furthermore, employees developed more strategic thinking as they worked with tools, such as reverse auctions and risk management assessment. As a result, supply management employees increased their value to the organization. “UTC helped create a sense of professionalism and elevated self esteem by helping buyers understand that their role is critical to the company and to saving the company significant amounts of money,” explains Cronin. “We started to see some momentum in people being promoted to higher levels of management and even executive levels over a five- or six-year period, which showed that there really is career momentum and progression within the supply management function.”
Last year the company broadened the opportunities for supply management employees again by merging supply management into a larger functional area—operations. The company decided that employees would benefit from understanding how their roles impact other departments such as manufacturing and quality.
To continue to cultivate a learning environment, UTC established an Internet portal for supply management employees to access information, news, and courses pertaining to their jobs. Employees regularly engage in a supply management certificate program online through Arizona State University, for example.
In the past year, UTC has worked on not just developing talent, explains Cronin, but acquiring talent. Last July the company recruited 18 people from schools across the country to participate in a two-year program, the Operations Leadership Program, that has the students
rotate among jobs in three areas: supply management, quality, and manufacturing. For this year’s program, UTC screened more than 5,000 resumés and selected 22 more people to partake in the program. “A year into the pilot program, the feedback has been phenomenal from our line managers and executives who are seeing a very different caliber of individuals coming through this process,” says Cronin. “Last evening we had a reception to welcome the 22 people who have just joined the Operations Leadership Program and the 18 who joined us last year. Our president and COO, Louis Chenevert, and a significant number of the operations executives from across the corporation attended to underscore the importance we see in bringing talent into this function of operations, which includes supply chain.”
Creating a culture focused on educating and developing its employees presents many benefits: It improves job performance and morale, increases employee retention, and contributes to a more competitive corporation. “With the dramatic increase in the number of people across UTC who have expanded their academic credentials in the last decade, one can’t help believe that we’re on our way to having what our chairman describes as one of the best educated workforces on the planet,” says Cronin.
| Elements of excellence UTC supply management promotes continuous learning and development A focus on education benefits employees and makes the company more competitive |
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