Experiential Learning: Breaking Through Barriers

to Profitability and Customer Satisfaction

Carmella Granado Senior Director, Organization Effectiveness Flextronics with TRI Corporation

TRI Corporation designs and delivers state of the art business simulations and experiential learning programs for global market leading organizations. We are committed to helping our clients develop their leaders, improve executive business acumen and enhance shareholder value.

Our mission is to be the preferred experiential learning partner to organizations dedicated to leadership development. We seek to deliver exceptional organizational benefits by establishing deep long term relationships of lasting value to select clients.

TRICorpora*onCopyright2010

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Scale. 200,000 employees operating in 30 countries spanning four continents.

Breadth. Integrated solutions and services that span the full product lifecycle, from design to manufacturing to distribution and a broad range of after market services.

Depth. Best-in-class service offerings ranging from high volume/low mix to complex low volume/high mix.

Customer Segments & Business Units. Dedicated segment and customer focused commercial and operational teams across five strategic segments and five business units.

Stability. Fiscal year 2010 revenues of US$24.1 billion. Strong balance sheet with a diversified customer and segment portfolio. Leader in Lean Six Sigma operations and vertically integrated supply chain solutions.

About Flextronics

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Flextronics – Breadth and Depth

Design.

•  Industrial Design • System Architecture • Mechanical Design • Embedded

System Design • Software Systems • Product Launch/NPI • DFx Services • Optomechatronics

Build.

• PCB/Flex Circuits • Camera Modules •  LCD Displays • Cables • Machining • Plastics • Metal Fabrication • SMT Assembly • System Integration

and Final Test • Optomechatronics

Ship.

• Build-to-Order • Configure-to-Order • Distribution and

Direct Fulfillment • Outbound Logistics

and Hubbing

Service.

• Repair/ Refurbishment and Warranty Support

• Service Parts Logistics • Remarketing • Retail Technical

Services • Asset Recovery • Reverse Logistics

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Diversified Business Model

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Business Situation

•  Explosive growth via acquisition resulted in diverse skill set

•  Low-margin business can’t afford errors

•  Fast-paced, pressured environment drives need to be good at thinking and acting on our feet

•  Needed to “grow” our own General Managers, tear down functional silos and increase collaboration

•  Best Practices appeared one step removed and didn’t teach problem solving

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The Solution: Action Learning

Action Learning Sets – Reg Revans

Business-Driven Action Learning – Short Burst – GE, Boeing

Action Learning Long-Term Projects -- Siemens, Others

BUT

As Yury Boshyk says:

“The house of Action Learning has many doors”

“Traditional” Action Learning--

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TRI Corporation Partnership

1.  Flextornics Leadership Development Team found TRI

2.  TRI custom fit its simulation to Flextornics •  Business model •  Margins •  Typical challenge •  Overall culture

3.  Piloted and deployed

Simulating the real world as close as possible stimulates the mind

My FlexFactory – San Jose

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My FlexFactory

•  18-month business cycle into 3 intense days

•  3 cross-functional teams compete for best financial results and highest customer satisfaction

•  Real-life role play – demanding customers, short deadlines, ever-changing objectives, unresponsive suppliers

•  Quarterly business reviews My FlexFactory – Venray

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Simulation Components

•  Understanding the environment •  Setting and meeting

commitments •  Creating high-performing teams •  Breaking self-imposed constraints •  Critical thinking •  Innovation and creativity •  Negotiating and influencing •  Benchmarking assignments •  Executive operating reviews •  Dealing with ambiguity •  Risk assessments and mitigation •  Second order consequences •  Seeing around corners •  Understanding the big picture •  Decisions and consequences

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My FlexFactory Is Action Learning

Teams learn how factories run •  Give formal Operations Reviews

with senior execs •  Have to deliver product, profit and

customer satisfaction •  Must collaborate for best results •  Learn to question everything •  Finance on team optimizes “the

box” •  Great questions get you “outside

the box” •  Learning is immediately applied

to projects back at work

My FlexFactory – China

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Benefits

•  Successful teamwork and functional interdependency

•  Stronger skills in business strategy formulation and execution

•  Prioritization of financial results •  Strong management bench •  More satisfied customers •  Managers are convinced of the

immediate and long-term ROI

"We've implemented weekly P&L reviews so all managers (test, process, product, manufacturing, industrial) understand, prioritize and document the actions they need to take to meet or improve our targets.“

Engineering Manager

"The training opened my eyes to the value of team expertise and to how functions work together so we can drive results cohesively.“

Business Development Manager

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Observations

NO ONE asks any questions!!!

•  Finance people optimize “The Box” they are in •  Curious teams that ask more questions get the

best results...they learn how to think outside “The Box”

•  Teams impacted throughout the program

Let’s see the quality and quantity of your questions!

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Mindset of Curiosity - Exercise

Use open-ended, exploratory questions

and listen deeply…

NOT to discover WHAT the person is, but rather to…

learn as much as possible about what it is like to be whatever your partner has chosen

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Debrief

•  What was comfortable/uncomfortable about this exercise?

•  How easy or difficult was it?

•  How different is this from how you usually operate?

•  What are the implications for Action Learning?

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In Sum . . . The Best Contemporary Business Simulations

•  Built around real business situations and problems

•  Anticipate and model future situations and problems

•  Incorporate live, real-time interactions between stakeholders

•  Allow mistakes with no negative impact to the business

•  Force rigorous considerations of risk and unintended consequences

•  Are truly experiential “learning by doing”

•  Encourage the right questions

•  Demolish self-imposed constraints

•  Incorporate reflection by After Action Reviews

Would you fly in an airplane flown by a pilot who had never been in a flight simulator?

Q&A

Thank You!