Today's Corporate University, Tomorrow's…

Corporate Universities (CU's) are active in many businesses across the country and around the world. However, their vision, goals, and technologies can vary widely. Yet corporate universities are proliferating and serving businesses in many ways.

CU's in existence today include:

• Brick and mortar structures
• Portal to one content provider's online learning events
• Learning events from many providers accessed online
• Repository for in-house classroom events
• Learning management systems
• Learning solutions that are comprehensive and include learning technologies, wide varieties of content and content formats, and service and support

With so many types of corporate universities in existence, it's easy to understand why vision, goals and technologies are not shared. The challenge for today, and tomorrow, is to determine how corporate universities should impact business success. Should the CU vision relentlessly support corporate strategy? Should it contain technology that drives learning in organizations? Should it leverage outside expertise and opportunities through co-sourcing and out-sourcing? And should senior management use it to ensure that corporate strategies are achieved and the enterprise is consistently ready for new growth?