A useful process in training methods and more besides

When Sun Microsystems decided to launch a Six Sigma quality initiative, the top management knew where to turn. SunU, the technology group's corporate university, stood ready to design and implement the company-wide training programme necessary to make Six Sigma work.

Similarly, when Sun decided that its managers knew enough about bits and bytes but not enough about how to manage, SunU was ready to swing into action with a group-wide "management excellence" programme.

These examples show why a hard-driving corporation such as Sun, progressive but deeply pragmatic, has been willing to spend time and money developing a corporate university.

At its best, SunU delivers more than mere training. It can be an agent for that most elusive of corporate objectives: change. Sun's corporate university is not a campus-based institution on the model of McDonald's Hamburger University in Illinois, which dates back to the late 1950s.

SunU, founded in the early 1990s, is more of a process than a place of learning. It is a small, virtual organisation with no showcase campus and a staff of fewer than 100.

In theory, this minimalist model allows a corporate university to respond to the needs of the business. There is no organisational inertia within the university itself. The past two years have put this theory to the test, says Laura DeBacker, SunU's director.

In 1999 and 2000, Sun Microsystems was expanding at record pace. A new employee was joining the company every 10 minutes, each of whom needed to be inducted into the company. At the same time, money was available to finance open-enrolment classes (those open to everyone) in everything from presentation skills to mentoring.

Today, the business environment is much harsher. Sun is just coming to the end of its most substantial rationalisation programme. The demands being made on SunU are quite different - and the presentation skills class has been cancelled. "If it is not strategic, we are not going to do it," says Ms DeBacker.

Strategic programmes are those that link directly into broader corporate initiatives. Six Sigma and management excellence are typical. Another example is the 'iwork' programme that teaches Sun employees how to work as part of geographically dispersed teams.

This was started in the late 1990s, when Sun decided to focus its growth outside the San Francisco Bay area. Hiring more engineers in Bombay or Birmingham made economic sense, allowing the company to side-step the high costs and skills shortages of Silicon Valley, but only if people could learn to work effectively in global work groups. SunU was asked to help.

The ability to design and implement strategic programmes across a global company is one factor that makes SunU a genuine corporate university rather than just a glorified training department. Another distinguishing feature is its funding method.

Rather than being allocated resources out of central funds - the traditional way of financing training in large companies - SunU charges business units for services as they are used.

SunU is not a profit centre. "We are not trying to make money from the corporation," says Ms DeBacker. But the 'cost recovery' method of financing on which it now relies has redefined the relationship between the university and the business units, its customers.

To be fair, it has taken SunU some time to get the lion's share of its financing on a cost recovery basis. Systems had to be built to enable SunU to allocate costs - essential if it was to bill its customers accurately.

The university also had to develop new relationships with each business unit, taking on the role of a consultant as well as a supplier.

In 1995, more than half of SunU's funding came from central allocations. By 2000, however, almost all its $42m budget was paid for on a cost recovery basis.

SunU is the very model of a modern corporate university in other respects. It maintains a small staff, most of whom are engaged in needs analysis, curriculum design and selecting and managing relationships with outside suppliers. It outsources as much as possible, an approach which enabled a staff of fewer than 100 to deliver 150,000 student days in 2000.

Information technology plays an increasingly important role, as one might expect from a company that sees itself as the father of network computing. The university will soon roll-out a 'learning management system', a software tool that will build a customised training schedule for each employee, based on their past experience, current role and future aspirations.

Another technological innovation is the 'Friday Five', an online system which invites employees to assess for themselves at the end of each week whether they have applied successfully new skills.

It is in these areas - planning and testing of learning rather than delivering content - that internet technology may have its biggest impact on corporate learning. That said, Ms DeBacker insists that SunU is not "a technology showcase". Nor is SunU the portal through which all the educational and training needs of the company are delivered.

Sun Education, a separate entity, takes care of the product-related learning requirements of customers.

This is a substantial task, given that Sun Microsystems' products include everything from high-end computer servers to networked storage devices to the Java software language.

But while Sun Education handles a lot of the 'hard core' technology training for the company, SunU is charged with making sure that everyone within the company has a basic grasp of the mind-boggling product range.

One recent initiative was a "marketing boot-camp" to make sure that all Sun employees know their Ultrasparc from their Solaris.