Education as a Strategic Advantage

How Education Enables a Winning Business System

Maintaining a competitive advantage in a global marketplace with frenetic change is a challenge for virtually any company.

With the ubiquitous availability of technology and systems, as well as globally mobile talent, many companies are increasingly turning to their people as an enduring source of competitive advantage.

This requires the ability to attract and retain top talent, and renewal that talent over time.

Education and training together play a pivotal role in creating and maintaining that advantage.

Author Robert Hirschey, a principal with Oliver Wight, has nearly 25 years of experience in forest products and related industries, details his experience with companies that view education as a top priority and investment. In doing so, he explains how they turn human capital into an enduring source of competitive advantage.

Hirschey presents an education model, the Oliver Wight Proven Path, which has been used successfully for more than 50 years in business process transformation and improvement.

He provides guidance on choosing an optimal blend of public and private courses, coaching, and internal education.

The pros and cons of each approach are detailed;

• Education and Training: Necessary Ingredients for Business Process Execution
• Role of Education in Business Process Transformation and Continuous Improvement
• Cultivating Human Capital: Creating Agents of Change
• The Consequences of a “Training Mindset”
• Building the Case for Strategic Education
• Education Options: Choosing the Optimal Blend
• More...

“Visionary leadership and ongoing strategic education cascading from influential internal champions are at the heart of the Proven Path.”