Colgate Palmolive (CP), which has operations in 60 countries, has used
e-learning to roll out its new corporate strategy, called GtMS (Go to Market
Strategy). CP turned to Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) after it felt the
classroom would not be an effective method of communicating the philosophy and
practices behind the new marketing and sales initiative to a large and diverse
sales and commercial community.
"We realised classroom-based training would not enable us to roll out
our GtMS as quickly as we needed," said Paula Disberry, customer marketing
director of global sales for CP.
TIS produced a 35-minute e-learning programme that uses a highly visual,
interactive teaching method to explain the six-step process of GtMS. It had to
cater for a diverse target audience, which included staff at CP subsidiaries
round the world who only spoke English as a second language.
"We had to make sure our material could be understood by an unusually
broad group of learners," explains Sambit Mohapatra, vice-president of TIS
in the UK, Europe and Middle East.
"We used a non-linear navigation strategy which allowed learners to
click on a topic at random. That way, users could finish a few topics, go back
to their daily tasks, then come back to finish the rest of the course. From the
outset, we emphasised the importance and benefits of GtMS to the individual’s
everyday work so they would remain engaged despite their busy schedules."
Each module of the course is followed by multiple-choice or drag-and-drop
exercises, mapped to the objectives of that module.
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"In partnership with TIS, we have developed a new way to communicate in
simple terms with our organisation," says Disberry.
