Nelson Croom's Blog

How to Sell a Business

by Rachel Bruce

I wrote in a previous blog that one of our authors Peter Howson had agreed to write a further course for our Accounting and Finance Portfolio on selling a business.  Peter’s existing published course with us in Due Diligence in Mergers and Acquisitions is popular amongst our partners who sell it onto their members, and so we are really pleased that Peter has recently finished writing the content  for How to Sell a Business.  The course is now in development and due to be launched at the end of May.

In his usual style, Peter Howson has written a course that takes a practical and straightforward approach to selling a business and includes four modules on deciding to sell, launching the sale, negotiating the sale and completing the sale.  The content covers all these four aspects in detail while providing useful tips and guidance for the learner.  We are looking forward to it being ready for launch.

Working faster, smarter and harder: Imago database upgrade

by Victoria Clarke

One of the benefits of using a hosted solution like ours is that you don’t need to worry about any costly updates or maintenance of the system – it’s our job to take care of all of that. Not only do we work continuously to develop our technology to include new features of benefit to our learners (such as the improved discussion forums and new functionality for submitting and marking distance learning assignments) but we obviously need to make sure that the technology that drives all of this is working in tip-top condition.

You may have heard mention over the last couple of months about some upgrade work that we’ve been doing. For the technically-minded amongst you we’ve upgraded the back-end database from Microsoft SQL Server 2000 (32-bit), running on a Microsoft Windows Server 2000 (32-bit) server, to SQL Server 2008 (64-bit) on a Windows Server 2008 (64-bit) server (phew!). For those of you who’s eyes may have just glazed over (and there’s a few of us here in the office – just don’t tell Tony!) that means that our technology is fully up-to-date.

Server migration is a tricky business. All manner of things could go wrong which is why we’ve all kept our heads down, crossed our fingers and left our technical team to it. The good news is that the migration went well and that there have been no problems reported. The even better news is that it makes Imago, our technology, even better! Short-term benefits that you may have noticed include:

• We can now handle more data and more learners concurrently, and faster
• Faster, more stable fileserver hardware with much greater capacity
• System performance will continue to remain good when carrying out overnight back-ups and housekeeping routines (particularly relevant to our overseas learners and those of you partial to doing a spot of online learning at 3am)
• Complex reports will compile more swiftly
• Greater resistance to pesky hacker attacks

And, in the long term, this upgrade will mean that we can:

• House up to 20 times more data than before
• Accelerate some of our development work
• Make some code changes that will result in faster content searching
• Speed up reports
• And, generally ensure that our partners and learners continue to receive the excellent service that they have become used to!

First BPMA Academy graduation ceremony

by Nicola Dann

Yesterday myself and Angela attended the graduation ceremony held by the British Promotional Merchandise Association (BPMA) for their first set of learners who have successfully completed the BPMA Academy’s training course. As we weren't collecting a certificate ourselves, the draw (apart from seeing one of our clients' projects successfully come full circle) was the location. The BPMA had managed to get The Strangers Room in The House of Commons for the ceremony. I'm surprised neither me nor Angela tripped up the stairs on the way in, as we were too mesmerised by the amazing stained glass windows, gilded ceilings and ancient carved walls to look where we were going. 

We did make it in, however, in time to hear MP John Greenway talk about the importance of the BPMA's Academy and give us a brief potted history of the building we were all standing in, which dated back to 1047. He then presented all the graduates with their awards.

The BPMA Academy has created the first certification within the promotional merchandise industry. The course covers a broad spectrum of skills relevant to those working in the  promotional merchandise industry, including the selling process, marketing techniques, product knowledge, the print process and procurement. It is a distance learning course, with all the study materials being housed in Nelson Croom's Imago system, and online assignments and an assessment providing the examination element. As the Academy has proved to be so successful, the next set of learners are already signed up and ready to go. We wish them the best of luck!

How are things going?

by Alan Nelson

Actually things are going fine at the moment at Nelson Croom, but it’s a hell of an opening question, isn’t it? And I hear it three times a day at the moment. We all seem desperate to sound each other out. Every time we open a newspaper or turn on the television we are told to be worried about how bad things are. So even if it isn’t particularly affecting our own area of work, we feel compelled to ask. Zeitgeist.

So what’s the answer?

Three months ago the response from the elearning world was simple if a little glib: “this is good for us”. The feeling was that as budgets got tight, more people would switch to alternatives to realise the potential cost savings. I always suspected that this was a touch complacent. It may be cheaper to deliver your leadership development programme at least partially online, but it’s a whole lot cheaper just to cross out that budget line completely. However, the optimisim of the elearning world was borne out by the success of the annual jamboree in January, the Learning Technologies Conference and Exhibition. There were more exhibitors and more visitors than ever before. “Perhaps” I thought, “elearning really is counter cyclical”.

Three months later and the picture is much clearer, if also quite a bit more complicated. People are behaving differently depending on what they are trying to achieve. For our partners and clients in professional bodies this means one of three things:

• Distance learning support for qualifications
• Compliance
• Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

Distance learning

Distance learning numbers are holding up well where the decision to embark on a qualification is made by the individual themselves. At times of uncertainty, people start to think beyond their current employer “I can’t rely on a job here forever. I know I am a competent professional but I may need to demonstrate that to people who don’t know me.” Qualifications such as those offered by the Market Research Society, the Pensions Management Institute or the British Promotional Merchandise Association all fall into this category. They are not necessary as a license to practice but they are a way for an employer to identify the serious professional among the sea of apparently experienced and capable applicants for a job.

The qualifications that are faring less well are those that are an intrinsic part of the process of entering a profession. This distinction is particularly clear in the world of accountants. If my theory is correct, with the big firms recruiting fewer graduates this year, ICAEW and ICAS will see a drop in new students. ACCA and CIMA on the other hand, where more candidates make their own personal decision to get qualified, will see their members holding up better.

Compliance

Where there is a need for professionals to demonstrate that they understand a set of regulations, such as money laundering for accountants or bankers or freedom of information for public officials, the switch to online appears to be accelerated by the recession. Individuals are choosing online courses that save them time and money and organisations are switching from programmes of face to face briefings to creating online courses to meet their compliance objectives or licensing in and tailoring white label content.

Continuing Professional Development

CPD is unlike any other form of professional learning. Surveys show that the overwhelming majority of professionals support the need to do CPD, but it is only where the regime is compulsory that we see significant take up. However, while participants are driven by a requirement to do something and record it, the choice as to what to do and how (face to face vs. online etc) is the individual’s. As a result, unlike learners on compliance courses who are often there on sufferance, we find those on CPD courses are engaged and enthusiastic. They are keen to learn and respond extremely positively to the opportunity to participate in a dialogue about issues of professional development. This year with budgets tighter and everyone focused on using their time more wisely, we have seen a significant uptake in the number on our online CPD courses.

For those suffering the harshest consequences of the recession, a little sympathetic creativity can help. For example, accountants made redundant in the recession still need to keep up their CPD. So we have created a solution to help them. While a busy working accountat may want 3 months’ access to a course, to fit around their work, someone experiencing a career break may have more time available. So we are working with one of our Irish partners to offer one week access at a reduced rate to those not currently in employment.

So, my answer to the “how are things going?” question is to encourage people to think through what the recession means for their members. They need the services of their professional body more than ever at this time and that means responding with creativity and imagination. It also means thinking through which services are likely to be in most demand in difficult times.

Learning styles and learning design - update

by Katy Hillary

So far our research into the most recent adult learning theories is reinforcing what we already knew and making us feel very clever indeed. It is of course nice to know that we have been right all along - as we suspected!

Research backs up our preferred approach by extolling the benefits of learner autonomy and self-direction and emphasisng the need to connect adult learning to a current knowledge/experience base.

Most experts also focus on goal orientation and the importance of an adult learner understanding the reason for learning something, for example in relation to a specific improvement in their day to day working role. This is where the reflective activities that we often use come into their own. Each time you ask a learner to think about what they currently do, or how they have dealt with an issue in the past, it encourages them to construct new and extended understandings, building on past behaviour and current knowledge.

However, there is one area of our learner tools that we will be updating shortly - the How do I learn? diagnostic in the "Personal Profile" section of the system.

Currently we offer learners who want to think more about this a reference to David Kolb's work on experiential learning. Research suggests that adult learners benefit from considering the process of their learning - in fact that it is the reflection on the process that motivates and supports adult development, more than any particular theory they might come across. So we hope to extend the references available here, to widen and update the background information for people who wish to explore further.

Watch this space!

Thinking strategically

by Rachel Bruce

We have recently started working on a new course that has been commissioned for development within two of our portfolios – Accounting and Finance Portfolio, and Professional Development Portfolio.  The course, entitled Thinking Strategically, is being written by one of our authors, Anna Faherty, who has also authored another of our courses called Communicating Complex Ideas.

Thinking Strategically is not just another course describing how to develop or implement strategy. It is instead specifically designed to meet the needs of professional specialists in other areas – from accountants to dentists to lawyers. Their central role may not be strategy formulation, but they need to contribute to the strategic debate in their organisation and to influence strategic direction. The course will help them to understand their company’s strategy (including all the jargon and tools that are used!) and to start to think in a strategic way, when going about their day to day working life, making decisions etc. 

The course includes five modules:

• Strategy and you
• Thinking differently
• Theory and process
• Tools and techniques
• Making it happen

It is due to be published in our Professional Development Portfolio in June, shortly followed with a specific version tailored for accountants in our Accounting and Finance Portfolio. The syllabus has been created and the author is now writing.  More on this as the course is being developed ...

Quality of learning in CPD

by Alan Nelson

Having worked in online professional development for ten years now, I am glad to say that there are still some things that get me really excited. This is particularly true - positively and negatively - in the world of accounting CPD.

On the positive side, we publish our own list in this area, the Accounting & Finance Portfolio. Whenever I look in detail at the content of these courses, I am still excited by the quality of the material and by our ability to compete effectively with much larger organisations in this market. We have recruited some of the leading experts in the profession as authors, and have formed partnerships with many of the leading professional bodies to provide accessible and engaging service for their members. This has enabled us extend the reach of our service to many thousands of practising accountants struggling to stay up to date with ideas and regulations, and to comply with their CPD regime.

But this marketplace also gets me agitated in a more negative way. The offering from some of our competitors is truly appalling – the worst kind of streamed video with no apparent thought about what might make it an engaging experience for the user. One of the leading UK professional bodies is offering videos of some of their face to face events. Tune is to see a bunch of delegates looking bored and a lecturer wandering about and mumbling. They don’t even seem to have bothered to edit out the irrelevant bits, so the remote watcher has to wait while handouts are passed around and listen to banal descriptions of the arrangements for the teabreak that they are presumably not invited to! It seems to me that the best that this kind of resource can hope to aspire to is to be quite a bit less good than the face to face event was - and there isn’t much evidence that it was very good in the first place.

So I have always been proud of the comparison between our content rich, interactive approach and the lazy alternatives offered by competitors. But right now I feel a real sense of anticipation because we are about to raise the bar still further. Three new courses currently in development follow a new approach to online professional development which places a much greater emphasis on stimulating a dialogue between professionals interested in the same topic. We call it peer-enriched learning. Here the subject matter expert is not so much the font of all knowledge, but rather someone who has thought through the issues and come up with some interesting questions. Participants are encouraged to contribute their ideas and build a rich repository of shared experience: a community of practice.

Our two approaches are entirely complementary; each is appropriate in different situations. In some cases purchasers are driven by the need to learn from an expert. For example, the author of our course, Due Diligence in Mergers and Acquisitions, Peter Howson, is a partner in an international mergers and acquisitions practice. Users acknowledge his expertise and want to find out what he has to say. They are happy for the experience to start with some fairly serious content. Then later they will want to contribute themselves and practise some of the techniques. This is the approach we have always taken with out technical courses and will continue to do so.

In the case of other topics though, there may not be a recognised expert. Robin Tidd, the author of our Managing Through a Recession course, does not claim to be the world’s expert, who can tell you exactly what to do if your business hits hard times, but he has spent a lot of time thinking about what questions you might need to answer in coming up with an appropriate solution. Here, the peer-enriched learning approach is more appropriate. Content is still provided but it is less of an end in itself and more of a catalyst to the debate.

There is now considerable evidence that collaborative learning is a powerful approach to embedding new ideas. This is borne out both by our experience of watching user engage with different types of learning resource and also from the feedback we get from users, who claim to have found as much value in the contributions from other participants as they have from the content, much like the participants in a good face to face session.

On a spectrum of how effective a learning resource is in engaging participants and embedding learning, we place video, and other forms of passive learning experience, at the bottom end, content rich interactive approaches in the middle, and collaborative approaches that engage the learners in solving their problems and those of their peers, at the top. Within the next three months our new courses will be live and we will have thousands of users to tell us whether we are right!

Gauging interest in the publishing programme

by Rachel Bruce

Alan and I recently returned from a trip to Dublin where we had meetings with three accounting professional bodies, with whom we partner to offer courses from our Accounting and Finance Portfolio to their members.

Much of our planned publishing programme across this year and next is focused on commissioning and developing courses for the Accounting and Finance Portfolio so that we are able to provide our partners with an even larger range of courses to promote and sell to their members.

One of the purposes of each of the three meetings was for me to gauge interest in our proposed publishing programme. Earlier this year I began putting together a publishing programme and lining up authors to write the courses and before confirming anything I wanted to test whether what we were doing met with the needs of our partners.  All the meetings we had were really positive, with each of the professional bodies keen to add  the proposed new courses to their portfolios, and they were particularly excited about our new series – peer-enriched learning (which Alan talked about last week). 

I came away from Dublin with renewed vigour about our publishing programme and in particular about the proposed courses in our new peer-enriched learning series.  The enthusiasm from the accounting bodies in Ireland meant that I have now been able to confirm our publishing schedule for the year, which includes three peer-enriched learning courses publishing in the first half of this year:

• The Budgeting Game
• Managing through a Recession
• Ethical Issues for Accountants

The great thing about our new peer-enriched learning series is that it’s creating excitement on all levels – our authors, our partners (as we saw in Dublin) and all of us at Nelson Croom who are responsible for the development of the courses.  Peer-enriched learning is making use of our web 2.0 tools allowing learners to share experiences and ideas with each other, and discuss specific topics and issues while being guided through a course with content written by an expert in their field.  Essentially learners are able to learn from others in their community, as well as from the author.

The “sharing each others’ answers” device means that some of the content is created by the learners themselves and therefore the courses are continually updated, remaining current and relevant.  This is particularly pertinent in courses such as Managing through a Recession where learners are able to share their experiences in dealing with various situations and also share techniques and devices to get through difficult times.

So we’ve started on our peer-enriched learning journey, we are all excited about it, and now the hard work begins to deliver the courses on time to all of our accounting partners (including the three we met in Ireland) so that in addition to the existing courses in their portfolio they have something new and exciting to offer to their members.

Process, process, process - the development of a new range of courses

by Alan Nelson

We are currently planning a new range of courses within our Accounting and Finance Portfolio that focus more on using collaborative tools to help people learn from each other. Developing a new offering of this sort is an iterative process for us. I am not sure we always do it in exactly the same way, but the process we have followed in this case is pretty typical.

The first step is normally the idea. This is often stimulated by the dialogue with clients, partners, authors and other stakeholders. Some conversation or series of conversations make us think in a new way – gives us the germ of an idea. In this case we noticed that people got excited when we showed them activities where we asked a learner a question and then shared with them the answers from other learners. Then, at the Learning Technologies show in January, one person said “This is fantastic. Why don’t you make more of this up front? I never realised you could do this.”

The next stage is to flesh it out a little internally to see whether we are all excited by it. Many ideas fall by the wayside at this stage, turning out to be simply the short term enthusiasm of one or two people (normally me, actually!). In this case we realised we had all been thinking about Web 2.0 type facilities and how we could build them into our approach without abandoning everything we had learned. We decided that we would like to create a new range of courses for our Accounting and Finance Portfolio that focused more on facilitating a group of professionals discussing and debating a subject than on an expert explaining how to do something.

Once we had convinced ourselves that we were onto something it was time to try it out on the outside world. In this case we were keen to do this as early as possible but we weren’t yet ready to consult our commercial partners with what could still have been a half baked idea we wouldn’t take any further. So we asked a couple of our existing authors what they thought, whether they would be interested in helping us to work up the idea and perhaps in producing the first couple of courses. Both authors loved the idea and wanted to be involved. One of them came up with a name for the new approach: peer-enriched learning.

We worked with the two authors to plan out the structure of the new courses and to establish some rules that we might follow to ensure that the new offering was consistent.

The next step was to talk to our commercial partners. We knew that we would have to be able to talk in a coherent and compelling way and that we would need some visual examples to illustrate what we were describing. We spoke to three commercial partners. They loved the idea and started to help us to flesh out the promotional proposition. What should the price point be for these new courses? How should we describe them? Was peer-enriched learning the right phrase? (Yes, we think so!)

Then it was back to the authors with the encouraging news about the response we had had. And that’s where we have got to.

Three courses that follow our new approach are now in development. We will pilot them with some tame learners who we can trust to give us honest feedback and then we will tweak them and launch them to the world around the middle of this year. It is exciting to be able to go from the germ of an idea to finished product within four or five months – in my old world of books publishing things took much longer.

It is already clear that by getting people involved in sharing their ideas and learning from each other we can create far more engaging and powerful professional development – a stark contrast with the passive experience of streamed lectures on offer from so many current providers.