netrashetty
Netra Shetty
Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE: APD) is an international corporation whose principal business is selling gases and chemicals for industrial uses. Air Products' headquarters is in Allentown, Pennsylvania, in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania, in the United States. Air Products is the Lehigh Valley's third largest employer, after Lehigh Valley Hospital and St. Luke's Hospital.
Leadership training focuses on enabling leaders to achieve business
goals through people. In multi-national companies, cultural
awareness is important at all levels of the organization, but
especially at the leadership levels where it needs to be addressed
on a daily basis. Developing cultural competence and integrating it
into a company’s workforce can be one of the most challenging
aspects of leadership development. Leveraging cultural competence
in today’s markets can mean the difference between success and
failure when executing business strategies.
Leadership training formats should help key employees create
connections with others and share real world experiences. When
used effectively, online learning, with its ability to reach a broader
audience than classroom training, can help build bridges across
different working styles and cultures.
This case study discusses how Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. (Air
Products) uses an integrated approach that combines custom and
off-the-shelf courseware to expand its leadership training programs.
The programs are tailored to meet the needs of new, mid-level, and
senior managers.
The Leadership Training Challenge
Air Products is a diversified manufacturing company with nearly
20,000 employees and annual revenues of $7.4B. The company
has operations in more than 30 countries.
Air Products encountered a well-known and fairly typical concern
when exploring the expansion of its leadership and management
programs: the current format simply wasn’t scalable. Although the
existing leadership education program was strong, it reached only a
small portion of the more than 1,500 managers across the
company. With managers actively serving customers in the field,
Air Products had to explore an alternate approach. A new solution
had to reach a wider audience without trading the social learning
that was so critical to support the cultural needs of the company.
Aside from developing a more scalable program, Air Products had a
unique problem to solve: How do you blend traditional
management training with customized culture-development? A Three Tiered Leadership Training: Air Products Case Study 4
How do managers find the right courses for their level?
The company found many vendors with large libraries of traditional,
U.S.-centric content, but struggled to figure out how employees
could wade through these libraries to select the appropriate courses
for their competency level. Air Products needed a curriculum plan
which varied by management level.
How to build Cultural Skills and General Management
Skills?
In addition, these large libraries were missing the cultural factors
essential to any leadership program. Air Products was concerned
that while many of these vendors had strong content, employees
would miss the social interactivity available with more traditional
training methods. With locations in more than 30 countries, Air
Products needed a solution that was scalable, efficient, and effective
– yet focused on development of cultural skills in addition to
traditional management skills.
The Solution: A Three-Tier Blended Approach
For Air Products, the solution was not to be found with a single
vendor. The company approached two of its key vendors, eCornell
and TMC, with an idea to develop a partnership that blends each of
its unique niches to create a singular approach to its business
problem. In this alliance, Air Products brings the expertise on
internal topics, eCornell provides the online management content,
while TMC provides a wealth of experience and knowledge on
cultural awareness. Together, they have developed a
comprehensive management curriculum based on Air Products
Leadership Competencies that provides a one-stop shop for
employee management training.
This approach blends online learning, electronic support tools,
classroom courses, and technology-based learning to fill the
demands of its learners around the world.
Air Products separates its managers into the following three levels
(see Figure 1): A Three Tiered Leadership Training: Air Products Case Study 5
Foundational Skills
Supervisors
New Managers
Middle Managers
Senior Managers
Leaders
Skills needed by all employees
Focus on skills needed to transition
to people management. Role is
tactically oriented
Focus on skills needed
to achieve business
results through people.
Role is operationally oriented
Focus on strategic
business planning and
Implementation through
People. Role is strategically
oriented.
Figure 1 - Air Products uses three tiers of management development
programs
1. New Managers / Supervisors
New supervisors and managers on the front line need a
significant amount of coaching and on-the-job training
as well as skills to help balance their functional work.
They often are focused on tactical tasks, and the
development they receive needs to reflect this profile.
2. Mid-level Managers
Mid-level managers focus on optimizing processes and
systems and achieving business results. They may not
yet be focused on strategic planning, but need these
skills in order to advance to the next level.
3. Senior Managers / Leaders
Senior managers and leaders focus on strategicallyoriented work, integrating people, processes, and
technologies. They need the ability to cascade business
goals down through the entire employee base in order to
develop alignment and drive execution of the goals of
the company.
Air Products currently has programs in place for all three
management groups. A Three Tiered Leadership Training: Air Products Case Study 6
Foundational Skills
Audience: New Managers / Supervisors
This program focuses on transitioning from an individual contributor
to a manager. Participants start with a three day, in-class
orientation session and learn about the company’s model and the
competencies they are expected to develop as a manager in order
to support their direct reports and the company.
After the orientation session, the participant teams with a partner
student and begins an 18 month online experience designed to
develop the foundational skills needed as a new manager. The
partner approach creates a support network as they learn together.
The participants, in groups of 25-30, take online courses that are
self-paced, yet supported by instructors with scheduled start and
end dates. These courses incorporate strong elements of
interactivity, as course takers participate with both instructors and
peers through discussion groups, with instructors always on-hand to
set expectations, answer questions, and review projects and
exercises. Participants are expected to complete a couple of classes
a month, with short breaks interspersed throughout the program to
help reduce the stress of participating in the program. Also
available are internal coaches from the Employee Development
organization who assist with immediate issues or questions as the
new manager moves through the program.
To complete the certification the new managers work in virtual
teams to apply their skills on a project that directly benefits the
company.
The project uses current Air Products situations to provide the new
managers an opportunity to apply and reinforce new skills. In
addition, the participant has an opportunity to engage in an actionlearning experience that addresses managing and working in virtual
teams. The participant defines the problem, develops possible
solutions, and then presents them to the case owner who uses this
information to help resolve the business issue.
Intermediate Skills
Audience: Mid-level Managers
In this program managers begin with an assessment to determine
their strengths as well as any skill gaps. Recognizing that at this
level managers have solid experience managing others, the
expectation is that they now need to focus on developing stronger A Three Tiered Leadership Training: Air Products Case Study 7
business skills to achieve their business goals through people. If
their assessment shows gaps in people management skills they are
directed to courses that can close these gaps.
Like the new manager program, courses are delivered through a
mix of e-learning, technology, and traditional classroom approaches
(see Figure 3). Air Products Employee Development group delivers
company-specific topics, such as performance management or
compensation, either in the corporate office or on site.
Managers at Air Products, as in other companies, are very busy and
often cannot take the time to attend a multiple-day workshop. For
topics that require learning in a classroom environment, Air
Products decided they needed to consider alternative delivery
approaches to deal with this problem.
In partnership with one of its vendors, they built a pilot program to
create single topics that can be delivered over a two-hour period of
time. These short blocks of learning, such as Performance
Management, easily can be combined into a series. This series
consists of an Introduction to Air Products performance
management practices, followed by two hour learning blocks on
each of the following topics:
¾ Developing People
¾ Motivating People
¾ Giving Performance Feedback
¾ Recognizing and Rewarding
¾ Conducting an Appraisal Discussion
Managers can participate in the learning blocks over a three-month
period and earn a certificate in Performance Management.
Developing learning blocks in this way allows the Employee
Development group to maximize delivery flexibility by using the
blocks as standalone topics or by combining them into one-day or
multiple-day experiences. These blocks also can be used to easily
create a customized program for a workgroup.
Recognizing that delivering learning in short chunks would not
satisfy all learning needs or styles, Air Products worked with its
partners, eCornell and Training Management Corporation, to
develop the Management Navigator (see Figure 2). A Three Tiered Leadership Training: Air Products Case Study 8
Figure 2 - The Management Navigator
The Management Navigator mirrors the coursework in the
management development curriculum by providing supporting
materials, skills practice scenarios, assessments, and other
background information.
Air Products keeps the learning effective and efficient by using
conferencing technology to address one-hour topics on policies and
practices, management and the law, health and wellness, and HR
topics. These classes, presented by internal experts, are delivered
to large numbers of managers at multiple locations. A Three Tiered Leadership Training: Air Products Case Study 9
Bersin & Associates © September 2005 Not for distribution Licensed material
New Managers
Middle Managers
Management Navigator On-Line Learning Support
Assessment
Management Briefings
(virtual, monthly short courses)
On-line Learning
through eCornell
Classroom Learning
Cohort Projects
Assessment
Orientation to New Role
Workshop
On-line Learning
through eCornell
Classroom Learning
Cohort Projects
Management Newsletter
Cultural Navigator On-Line Learning Support
Leadership Education
Program*
*Invitation Only
Figure 3 - Air Products uses a structured blend for training first-line and
middle managers
Advanced Skills
Audience: Senior Managers / Leaders
The needs of senior managers and leaders are addressed through
Air Product’s Leadership Education program. In existence since
1996, the program is delivered in three, three-day sessions over a
one-year period of time.
This program uses “leaders teaching leaders” to focus on leadership
self-awareness, developing cohesive global teams, and change
through strategic thinking and innovation. Participants come from
all regions of the world to develop a community, as well as their
own personal leadership skills. In addition, this group has the
opportunity to attend executive education experiences through
university programs at Wharton, INSEAD, Harvard, or other A Three Tiered Leadership Training: Air Products Case Study 10
relevant programs. They also are welcome to participate in, or use
any of, the management development curriculum’s products or
services.
Leadership training focuses on enabling leaders to achieve business
goals through people. In multi-national companies, cultural
awareness is important at all levels of the organization, but
especially at the leadership levels where it needs to be addressed
on a daily basis. Developing cultural competence and integrating it
into a company’s workforce can be one of the most challenging
aspects of leadership development. Leveraging cultural competence
in today’s markets can mean the difference between success and
failure when executing business strategies.
Leadership training formats should help key employees create
connections with others and share real world experiences. When
used effectively, online learning, with its ability to reach a broader
audience than classroom training, can help build bridges across
different working styles and cultures.
This case study discusses how Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. (Air
Products) uses an integrated approach that combines custom and
off-the-shelf courseware to expand its leadership training programs.
The programs are tailored to meet the needs of new, mid-level, and
senior managers.
The Leadership Training Challenge
Air Products is a diversified manufacturing company with nearly
20,000 employees and annual revenues of $7.4B. The company
has operations in more than 30 countries.
Air Products encountered a well-known and fairly typical concern
when exploring the expansion of its leadership and management
programs: the current format simply wasn’t scalable. Although the
existing leadership education program was strong, it reached only a
small portion of the more than 1,500 managers across the
company. With managers actively serving customers in the field,
Air Products had to explore an alternate approach. A new solution
had to reach a wider audience without trading the social learning
that was so critical to support the cultural needs of the company.
Aside from developing a more scalable program, Air Products had a
unique problem to solve: How do you blend traditional
management training with customized culture-development? A Three Tiered Leadership Training: Air Products Case Study 4
How do managers find the right courses for their level?
The company found many vendors with large libraries of traditional,
U.S.-centric content, but struggled to figure out how employees
could wade through these libraries to select the appropriate courses
for their competency level. Air Products needed a curriculum plan
which varied by management level.
How to build Cultural Skills and General Management
Skills?
In addition, these large libraries were missing the cultural factors
essential to any leadership program. Air Products was concerned
that while many of these vendors had strong content, employees
would miss the social interactivity available with more traditional
training methods. With locations in more than 30 countries, Air
Products needed a solution that was scalable, efficient, and effective
– yet focused on development of cultural skills in addition to
traditional management skills.
The Solution: A Three-Tier Blended Approach
For Air Products, the solution was not to be found with a single
vendor. The company approached two of its key vendors, eCornell
and TMC, with an idea to develop a partnership that blends each of
its unique niches to create a singular approach to its business
problem. In this alliance, Air Products brings the expertise on
internal topics, eCornell provides the online management content,
while TMC provides a wealth of experience and knowledge on
cultural awareness. Together, they have developed a
comprehensive management curriculum based on Air Products
Leadership Competencies that provides a one-stop shop for
employee management training.
This approach blends online learning, electronic support tools,
classroom courses, and technology-based learning to fill the
demands of its learners around the world.
Air Products separates its managers into the following three levels
(see Figure 1): A Three Tiered Leadership Training: Air Products Case Study 5
Foundational Skills
Supervisors
New Managers
Middle Managers
Senior Managers
Leaders
Skills needed by all employees
Focus on skills needed to transition
to people management. Role is
tactically oriented
Focus on skills needed
to achieve business
results through people.
Role is operationally oriented
Focus on strategic
business planning and
Implementation through
People. Role is strategically
oriented.
Figure 1 - Air Products uses three tiers of management development
programs
1. New Managers / Supervisors
New supervisors and managers on the front line need a
significant amount of coaching and on-the-job training
as well as skills to help balance their functional work.
They often are focused on tactical tasks, and the
development they receive needs to reflect this profile.
2. Mid-level Managers
Mid-level managers focus on optimizing processes and
systems and achieving business results. They may not
yet be focused on strategic planning, but need these
skills in order to advance to the next level.
3. Senior Managers / Leaders
Senior managers and leaders focus on strategicallyoriented work, integrating people, processes, and
technologies. They need the ability to cascade business
goals down through the entire employee base in order to
develop alignment and drive execution of the goals of
the company.
Air Products currently has programs in place for all three
management groups. A Three Tiered Leadership Training: Air Products Case Study 6
Foundational Skills
Audience: New Managers / Supervisors
This program focuses on transitioning from an individual contributor
to a manager. Participants start with a three day, in-class
orientation session and learn about the company’s model and the
competencies they are expected to develop as a manager in order
to support their direct reports and the company.
After the orientation session, the participant teams with a partner
student and begins an 18 month online experience designed to
develop the foundational skills needed as a new manager. The
partner approach creates a support network as they learn together.
The participants, in groups of 25-30, take online courses that are
self-paced, yet supported by instructors with scheduled start and
end dates. These courses incorporate strong elements of
interactivity, as course takers participate with both instructors and
peers through discussion groups, with instructors always on-hand to
set expectations, answer questions, and review projects and
exercises. Participants are expected to complete a couple of classes
a month, with short breaks interspersed throughout the program to
help reduce the stress of participating in the program. Also
available are internal coaches from the Employee Development
organization who assist with immediate issues or questions as the
new manager moves through the program.
To complete the certification the new managers work in virtual
teams to apply their skills on a project that directly benefits the
company.
The project uses current Air Products situations to provide the new
managers an opportunity to apply and reinforce new skills. In
addition, the participant has an opportunity to engage in an actionlearning experience that addresses managing and working in virtual
teams. The participant defines the problem, develops possible
solutions, and then presents them to the case owner who uses this
information to help resolve the business issue.
Intermediate Skills
Audience: Mid-level Managers
In this program managers begin with an assessment to determine
their strengths as well as any skill gaps. Recognizing that at this
level managers have solid experience managing others, the
expectation is that they now need to focus on developing stronger A Three Tiered Leadership Training: Air Products Case Study 7
business skills to achieve their business goals through people. If
their assessment shows gaps in people management skills they are
directed to courses that can close these gaps.
Like the new manager program, courses are delivered through a
mix of e-learning, technology, and traditional classroom approaches
(see Figure 3). Air Products Employee Development group delivers
company-specific topics, such as performance management or
compensation, either in the corporate office or on site.
Managers at Air Products, as in other companies, are very busy and
often cannot take the time to attend a multiple-day workshop. For
topics that require learning in a classroom environment, Air
Products decided they needed to consider alternative delivery
approaches to deal with this problem.
In partnership with one of its vendors, they built a pilot program to
create single topics that can be delivered over a two-hour period of
time. These short blocks of learning, such as Performance
Management, easily can be combined into a series. This series
consists of an Introduction to Air Products performance
management practices, followed by two hour learning blocks on
each of the following topics:
¾ Developing People
¾ Motivating People
¾ Giving Performance Feedback
¾ Recognizing and Rewarding
¾ Conducting an Appraisal Discussion
Managers can participate in the learning blocks over a three-month
period and earn a certificate in Performance Management.
Developing learning blocks in this way allows the Employee
Development group to maximize delivery flexibility by using the
blocks as standalone topics or by combining them into one-day or
multiple-day experiences. These blocks also can be used to easily
create a customized program for a workgroup.
Recognizing that delivering learning in short chunks would not
satisfy all learning needs or styles, Air Products worked with its
partners, eCornell and Training Management Corporation, to
develop the Management Navigator (see Figure 2). A Three Tiered Leadership Training: Air Products Case Study 8
Figure 2 - The Management Navigator
The Management Navigator mirrors the coursework in the
management development curriculum by providing supporting
materials, skills practice scenarios, assessments, and other
background information.
Air Products keeps the learning effective and efficient by using
conferencing technology to address one-hour topics on policies and
practices, management and the law, health and wellness, and HR
topics. These classes, presented by internal experts, are delivered
to large numbers of managers at multiple locations. A Three Tiered Leadership Training: Air Products Case Study 9
Bersin & Associates © September 2005 Not for distribution Licensed material
New Managers
Middle Managers
Management Navigator On-Line Learning Support
Assessment
Management Briefings
(virtual, monthly short courses)
On-line Learning
through eCornell
Classroom Learning
Cohort Projects
Assessment
Orientation to New Role
Workshop
On-line Learning
through eCornell
Classroom Learning
Cohort Projects
Management Newsletter
Cultural Navigator On-Line Learning Support
Leadership Education
Program*
*Invitation Only
Figure 3 - Air Products uses a structured blend for training first-line and
middle managers
Advanced Skills
Audience: Senior Managers / Leaders
The needs of senior managers and leaders are addressed through
Air Product’s Leadership Education program. In existence since
1996, the program is delivered in three, three-day sessions over a
one-year period of time.
This program uses “leaders teaching leaders” to focus on leadership
self-awareness, developing cohesive global teams, and change
through strategic thinking and innovation. Participants come from
all regions of the world to develop a community, as well as their
own personal leadership skills. In addition, this group has the
opportunity to attend executive education experiences through
university programs at Wharton, INSEAD, Harvard, or other A Three Tiered Leadership Training: Air Products Case Study 10
relevant programs. They also are welcome to participate in, or use
any of, the management development curriculum’s products or
services.