C
hanges in environment, whether linked to markets, technological developments or even to
competition, are picking up speed. We are now constantly calling into question the business
models that we thought would last for so long. Businesses are experiencing great challenges in
adapting due to this acceleration of change.
Every time a business decides to implement a new strategy it must be communicated and shared by all,
otherwise there is the risk that the decisions taken at ground level, by experts in their field, may not correspond
to the company vision. Consequently, existing teams or those joining the business, must rapidly develop or
acquire the skills essential for adapting to these changes. This of course must be in a global context.
The competitiveness of businesses now depends less on product improvement or better cost management but
more on their capacity to innovate and to take initiatives. To be competitive, businesses now have to be client-
orientated, result-orientated, and demonstrate team leadership and adaptability. Are your teams ready? Are
they familiar with your strategy? Do they know where to concentrate their efforts? Do they have the necessary
skills? Do they know how to adapt and make the most of every given opportunity?
CrossKnowledge offers innovative solutions to rapidly align your entire organisation and to develop its
critical skills on an international scale, with proven efficiency at contained cost.
• PAG E 3 •

We need to move
away from a specialist
culture and turn towards
a client culture.
How can we help our
hundreds or thousands
of employees to learn?

CrossKnowledge improves the opportunities for
your teams to acquire the skills they need.
W
hile the need to acquire new skills is increasing continually, access to training remains exceedingly low.
On average, only one in three people undergoes training in large Western businesses each year. Where
managerial or behavioural skills are concerned, this rate is one in five.
How can a strategy succeed if the skills are not where they are needed? How can you improve innovation
leadership if management does not know how to encourage creativity at ground level? How can you be client-
orientated if your teams do not know how to listen or speak to clients? How do you change the way things are
done if the key liaison staff, who are the opinion leaders, do not know how to drive change?
CrossKnowledge offers new methods for transferring skills so that you
can train twenty times faster. Your business can greatly develop the ta-
lents of both individuals and groups. You can manage your needs, where
key skills are concerned, more effectively. Your teams adapt and grow.
• PAG E 5 •

We have committed
ourselves to
implementing
our new strategic
plan over 9 months.
Will the operational
teams keep up?

With CrossKnowledge you can put your alignment
and skills development programmes in place more
quickly.
E
ven the best strategies are ineffective if they are not deployed rapidly. The whole organisation can come
to a standstill if it struggles to implement a new strategy, organisation or new procedures.
The need for rapidity is the same if we look at operational teams at ground level. “We have bi-annual
sales targets for this new product.” “We need to have mastered this industrial process within three months.”
“We must integrate these new teams immediately.” “If I head this team, I have to be up to speed as soon as
possible”.
Whether you are deploying a strategy or organisational change, or mastering new know-how, speed is survival.
CrossKnowledge provides measurable solutions to the time-factor issue involved in skills development. Through
our flexible and personalised skills development solutions Time to Learning
your business becomes more responsive. Training becomes Number of people trained (%)
immediately available, right where your teams need it the
CrossKnowledge
most: on the job. Their skills are more quickly adapted to 100 solutions
your company’s strategic needs and the whole business can
75
confront changes in environment more successfully. Traditional
training
50
25
3 months
6 months
9 months
12 months
15 months
18 months
Time
• PAGE 7 •

Human resources are
important to us - this
is an area in which we
invest millions.
But what is the return
on this investment?

CrossKnowledge improves the effectiveness of
training programmes in a way that can be measured
and proven over time.
M
ost businesses are now aware of the growing importance of human resources and
wish to increase their investment in training. However, they are uncertain of how ef-
fective this will turn out to be. Think of all those training courses which were ill-adap-
ted to the specific needs of the trainees. Think of all the times that the issues at stake were poorly
relayed by the middle management, resulting in very Measure of efficiency
little impact for the money invested. Think of all those Assimilation
of training
CrossKnowledge
courses which decreased in quality the more frequently solutions
Effectiveness
they were carried out internally. Think how many training
courses have taken place that were immediately forgot-
ten and which had little impact at ground level. Often Losses
training programmes are not individualised or flexible
enough. They do not move along quickly enough and Traditional training
their actual effectiveness is rarely evaluated. These
flaws originate in both their design and in the way they Time
3 months
6 months
9 months
12 months
15 months
18 months
are run. And yet we need to carry out more training!
The solutions offered by CrossKnowledge have been
proven to increase the effectiveness of training. The programmes CrossKnowledge provides are individualised,
and so can meet the varying needs of the trainees. They are designed for employees at all levels and thus
avoid the pitfalls of a “one size fits all” approach. CrossKnowledge bases its training on different pedagogical
methods. These methods increase the amount of information that is effectively taken on board and put into
practice by the trainee.
Finally, because CrossKnowledge training solutions measure skills development, they prove that investment
in training can provide a real return. Individualised, relevant, measured, long-lasting: skills development
programmes become a reflex. Your business itself becomes a veritable trainee.
• PAGE 9 •

We should be training
five times as many
people per year... Twice
or three times as often!
Will we have to spend
15 times as much?

CrossKnowledge optimises
the cost of your training policy.
T
raining is expensive. The trainer, travelling, accommodation, and the time the teams spend training all
cost; and perhaps only an infinite part of what is taught is actually taken in by the trainee and put into
use. When budgets are tight, businesses think twice about adopting the extensive training policies which
actually prepare them for facing the future. So training is reserved for the elite: executive courses, program-
mes for those with the most potential, and so on. Meanwhile, the waiting list grows for middle management,
project managers, specialists and sales staff. Yet these employees
have a key impact on business performance. This is cost manage-
ment through reducing the availability of training to all.
CrossKnowledge
solutions
The result is that the top 50 companies of the larger European
countries invest on average 200 million euros, per country, to ultima-
tely train just one manager in three. Traditional
training
You can completely reassess the financial aspect of providing
training with the solutions CrossKnowlege has to offer. You can
Pedagogical costs
(development and running)
Logistical costs
(transport, accommodation)
Downtime costs
(payroll, operational impact)
Costs
greatly reduce the amount of time spent in a classroom by
replacing it with individualised learning, close to real-life practice.
With CrossKnowledge, you increase the range of possible systems
and respond to the immediate needs of operational staff, without
having to put into place difficult and expensive programmes. For the same budget, it is possible to train twenty
times as many teams. Without these financial constraints, training becomes the right, and duty, of all staff.
Companies can integrate training into the working
day and benefit the company’s strategic issues.

Training all
our teams
Deploying our
strategy more rapidly
Getting more
results...
And all on a fixed
budget.
Can it be done ?

T
raditional training solutions are expensive, difficult to organise, and time-consuming. They are designed
for groups only and are rarely evaluated. They alone are no longer sufficient for meeting the challenges
faced by the company in terms of human resources.
Since skills are now a critical part of the implementation of strategies, you need to train more people, more
often. CrossKnowledge distance training solutions currently benefit over a million people in more than 40
countries by avoiding the constraints of time and space.
Strategies and environments change at speed, so you must train more quickly. The alignment and skills
development programmes designed with CrossKnowledge can make the training of several thousand staff
possible in the space of only a few months.
Since behaviour and skills really must change, training must also be more efficient. Designed in collaboration
with international specialists, recognised by reputed Business Schools and used by large European, American
and Asian training organisations, 100% individualised and supervised: CrossKnowledge distance training
develops skills in a measurable way.
It is simply impossible to multiply budgets by 10 or 15, under the pretext that needs are 10 or 15 times
greater. Businesses need to train more economically. Calculated per staff member, the cost of CrossKnowledge
distance training is up to 70% lower than that of traditional training solutions.
With distance training solutions from
CrossKnowledge, improve the potential to meet
your strategic challenges.
• PAG E 1 3 •

Main references
BANK AND INSURANCE INDUSTRY
AGF ABENGOA
AXA Alcan
Caisse d’Epargne Arcelor
Crédit Agricole Bombardier
Eurofactor Cytec
GE Money Bank EADS
John Hancock Eutelsat Communications
SCOR Ingersoll Rand
Italcementi Group
CONSUMER GOODS Plastic Omnium
Altadis PSA Peugeot Citroën
Danone Renault
L’Oréal Safran
Nestlé Saint Gobain
Schneider Electric
ENERGY Square D
EDF Thalès
Scottish and Southern Energy Ulma
Valeo
EDUCATION
Bradford University – MEDIA
Shool of Management France 3
Brandeis University – Boston VRT
EFB Paris
EM Grenoble TELECOM / HIGH TECH
EUROMED Marseille Alcatel-Lucent
ESCE France Telecom
ESCP-EAP IBM France
ESC Lille Laird Technologies
ESC Rouen Legrand
ESC Troyes Lexmark
ESG (Groupe PGSM) STMicroelectronics
ESMT – Berlin T-Systems
ESSEC Unilog LogicaCMG
HEC Paris
IESEG HEALTHCARE AND ENVIRONMENT
Manchester Business School Laboratoires Servier
The Open University Sanofi-Aventis
SUPINFO Suez
Newscastle Business School
SERVICES
RETAIL Bureau Veritas
Casino Group HBM
Picard Mercer Management Consulting
The Phone House Voyages-sncf.com
• PAG E 1 4 •

This document is published by CrossKnowledge.
Design and production: Five Agency
Photo credits: Corbis/Getty Images
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