No Ordinary Boot Camp - by Noel M.Tichy

Presentation by• Keyur Shah

•Narayanan Palani•Raman VG

•Prashant Arekar

IntroductionReference:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trilogy_(company)

• Trilogy is a software company based in Austin, Texas. It specializes in software services to Global 1000 companies, especially in the automotive, consumer electronics, and insurance agencies. It was founded by Stanford dropout Joe Liemandt.

• Trilogy has additional offices in Bangalore and Hangzhou. Its clients include Ford Motor Company, Daimler-Chrysler, Nissan, Goodyear, Prudential, Travelers Insurance, Gateway and IBM.

• Trilogy was featured in the October 1998 Rolling Stone article, "Wooing the Geeks". Trilogy is notable for its Trilogy University program, which was the topic of the April 2001 Harvard Business Review article, "No Ordinary Boot Camp."

Trilogy University

• Boot Camp program

– Two goals i.e. Preparedness and Bonding

– Focus: Skills, Relationships, and Values

– Students Combination: Masters,PhDs,Arts, UG(Computer Science)

– Twice a year

– Total Duration:12 Weeks

Founder and CEO, Trilogy

Trilogy University/1

• First month of the program– ‘Instruction Track’ Model– Group of 20 people

mentored by a section leader

– Emotional experience sharing

– Developing skills and relationships

– Goal: Trusting relationship with coworkers

Trilogy University/2

• Second month of the program– ‘Project’ Model:1. Responsibility of

inventing new ideas2. Create a business model3. Build the product4. Develop marketing plan– Team of 3 to 5 people come

up with idea– Teams not penalized for

failure of idea– Goal: Build Confidence

Trilogy University/3

• Third month of the program– Move on to Graduation projects– ‘Trilogy Business Unit’ Assignments– Discussion between graduate, section leader and project

manager:1. Agreement on assignments2. Objective settings3. Career Planning Thoughts4. Manager sets

a) Long term goals(three to five years)b) Creating job assignmentc) Coaching opportunity

Differentiating Factors

• Project Manager help employee to be a star – What factors differentiates Boot Camp from others?

a) SKILLSb) RELATIONSHIPc) VALUES

• Basics of Basics Training in following ways:1. Trilogy University(TU) is the primary research and

development engine of the organization2. TU=Trilogy’s Leadership Development3. Communicate Strategic Directions4. Organizational Renewal and Transformation

Success Stories!

• Success story of CarOrder.com– Global Alliance with Ford– Won PC Magazine’s 2000 Editor’s Choice for Best Car Buying Site– Reason:

• Bonds between Teammates• High Revenue($25Million USD) from R&D

• Success story of Fast Cycle Time (an Internet Time Delivery Methodology)

• Success story of IveBeenGood.com– Enables purchase of different products from different retail sites

like Amazon into a single shopping cart– UberWorks (Universal Shopping Cart Technology)

Developing Leaders

• Section Leaders: Experienced Employees

• Visit TU for three months at a time to– Inspiring others

– Mentoring talent

– Evaluating performance

– Communicating vision and strategy

• Companies basically outsource through Consultants and Corporate Trainers

• At TU, it is an honor to be asked to instruct!

Meeting Twice a year to,

• Discuss on what they want to teach

• Focus?

• Teachable point of view?

• Craft the vision based on candidate feedback

Organizational Renewal and Transformation

• Traditional Method: Teach new comers to fit into existing organization

• TU Method: Organizational Renewal and Transformation!

• ‘Fresh Hires’ are the best chance to change the company.

• Making real impact• Strong trust network• It is not a training program. But a

Transformational Experience!

Teaching Cycle-Elements

• New Hire Training

• Product Innovation

• Leadership Development

• R&D’s High Revenue

• CEO keeps the cycle in motion

Others are finding it as difficult to Imitate..Why?

• Best use of CEO time• Best use of Senior Managers’ time• Bring Customers into the process• Customer brings their own executives to TU to

teach fresh hires and set business challenges• ‘Teaching Cycle’ is unique in nature and difficult

to imitate by others!• Truly committed Top Management towards TU!• Why not other companies imitate this ‘Teaching

Cycle’?

Few Questions

• Why not other companies imitate the three months teaching cycle period?

• 12 Weeks TU: Is it sufficient?• TU can outsource trainings to consultants and corporate trainers.

What are the pros and cons?• Why every experienced employee should teach fresh hires as a

Section Leader during his/her busy schedule?• Can they skip first month and bring fresh hires to Project directly?• Is it Project Manager Meeting is required at the Third Month

Training?• Why Project Manager sets five year goals at the end of training

program when the business is uncertain and candidate is a fresher?• Is it possible to expect high revenue from R&D of TU in future?