Quint Wellington Redwood, an international consultancy and training firm, has launched a new platform aimed at improving the impact of training efforts through bridging the gap between education and implementation. The platform, dubbed ‘Consulting in a Box’, provides users with an online environment in which they can self-assess their progress and trigger actionable insights.
Established in 1992, Quint Wellington Redwood (Quint) is a consulting firm that operates at the intersection of management consulting and IT consulting. The Netherlands headquartered firm also has a separate solutions arm – Quint Solutions – which develops training and educational solutions, courseware and certifications globally in a range of topics, including strategy, sourcing, governance, architecture, information management, IT service management, Agile, DevOps and Lean.
With the development of the ‘Consulting in a Box’ platform, Quint aims at overcoming the gap between the value added delivered by training and the need for continuous learning as a result of the rapidly changing business environment. “Professionals often follow a training course to set a change in motion in their work or within their department. However, after obtaining a certificate, the acquired knowledge often fades away quickly and back on the work floor the situation soon returns to business as usual”, explains Frank Frambach from Quint.
Trends such as digitisation, growing international competition and cooperation, the rise of new business models and changing customer demands, among others, are revamping the way organisations organise their products/services, and down the line, the competencies and skills required to serve those. While for decades it was sufficient to ensure the right training and education governance is in place, today the speed with which change is swiping through the business landscape means that flexibility and permanent attention are key, highlights Frambach. “Compare it to driving a car: passing your driving test does not mean that you’re immediately capable of driving smoothly.”
Continuous learning
The ‘Consulting in a Box’ toolkit has been designed in such a manner that it allows the learning process to continue even after a milestone has been completed, or a training certificate been awarded. “Quint’s wealth of experience in consultancy and IT has been converted into various assessments and self-assessments which allow users to gain insight into their progress – both from a technical but also personal, and team, effectiveness perspective. After comparison to baseline evaluations, including second evaluations, as well as best practices embedded in the tool’s knowledge library, professionals can through a tailored dashboard track their own performance curve and map to their own practical environment.
The platform is supported by a community of other learners, but also experts, which can be called on for advice or coaching. “Being part of an online community means that participants (and former participants) can collaborate with one another, gain inspiration and ask each other or experts questions”, remarks Frambach. The tool’s action-driven section allows professionals to plan and schedule follow up steps, in a bid to gain the additional value they are seeking. “All of this ensures that the value of following a training course is raised, and the impact thereafter, is raised.”
Adoption of the platform is, in the eyes of the founders, also a win-win for employers. “The business sees an immediate ROI regarding the costs of training, and gains an additional active change agent. The value of this should on the longer-run not be underestimated in a time when change is the only constant.
Consulting in a Box is available through Quint’s partner network. Users are granted access immediately after the completion of a training course. Participants interested in seeing ‘Consulting in a Box’ live in action can join an online demo webinar on February 16th – follow this weblink for registration.