Features

Published December 2009

The Rise of the Corporate Multiversity

Craig Mindrum

Continued

Alliances between businesses and traditional universities are increasingly common, and such partnerships can certainly advance the innovative capabilities of both parties — driving new intellectual property and advancing the thinking across industries.

The more relevant issue in this context, however, is advancing not simply the knowledge of the community of “masters and scholars,” but the skills of those coming out of secondary schools and universities as they enter the workforce. Multiple studies have painted a dire picture of the skills shortfalls that are already being experienced across all geographies. The recession has temporarily changed that picture, but it is also likely to underscore how permanently the knowledge economy has altered the skills that businesses and nations will require to compete effectively in a global environment.

Eric Davidove, who has lived and worked in the United Kingdom for more than six years, points to the U.K. model as one that is likely to be ever more attractive to nations looking to increase workforce competitiveness in the global market. The U.K. government has become actively involved in leveraging the distinctive capabilities of corporate learning departments as well as of traditional universities.

“A study commissioned several years ago looking at the U.K.’s long-term workforce needs concluded that the country’s skills base was mediocre by international standards,” Davidove said.

Increasing the “multiples” that the university system could provide — using distance learning, for example — could be part of the answer, but it would be slow to develop, especially given entrenched perspectives as highlighted by Mark Taylor’s view of the university system.

Instead, Davidove said, “the government has tried to improve the synergies and assets of both the corporate and traditional university systems. One innovative approach has been the creation of Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) — state-sponsored, employer-led organizations that cover specific economic sectors.”

SSCs provide companies and organizations with the specialized skills required for their workforces.

“The national skill academies allow employers to take control over the design and delivery of education and training for their sector and require the collaboration of employers, government and top education and training providers from both the public and private settings,” Davidove said. “Employer-led centers of training excellence help deliver the skills required by the employers and also help improve the productivity and competitiveness of the workforce.”

The Future of the Multiversity

Learning and business executives who are successful in developing a multiversity, and not just a training organization, should be aware of the scope and power of what they are creating.

In an era when the answer to the majority of a student’s content questions is 0.27 seconds away via a search engine, the heritage of the traditional university as a “brain dump” by renowned professors is becoming increasingly irrelevant. What organizations and nations in the knowledge economy require instead are people capable of engaging in rigorous, cross-disciplinary problem formulation and collaborative work to solve those problems. That’s what a corporate multiversity can deliver, if organizations and their executives are willing to step up to the opportunity.

Craig Mindrum, Ph.D., is a strategic and talent management consultant. Over a 26-year career as a businessman, researcher, author and college professor at DePaul and Indiana universities, he has focused on areas of human performance and organizational change, including communications, leadership and the moral design of organizations. He can be reached at editor@clomedia.com.

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