Computer training business

Entrepreneur Wayne J. Griffin thought he would have little to learn by attending a leadership training program in the summer of 2002 with a bunch of corporate presidents and COOs. "They're great, but at the end of the day, they don't have their own butts on the line the way I do," says the owner of an electrical contracting firm in Holliston, Massachusetts.

But during an exercise at Leadership at the Peak, a course offered by the Center for Creative Leadership, in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, Griffin and some cohorts were blindfolded and led by others on a half-mile hike through the woods. Once they reached a clearing, the exercise in dependency and trust continued as the group play-acted the removal of a piece of "radioactive waste" using a ball, a bucket and bungee cords. "I had to give trust to get trust, and even then, the outcome was unknown," recalls Griffin.

The experience transformed him. "I realized that my biggest strengths could be some of the company's biggest weaknesses if I didn't properly channel them, because I'm a take-charge guy," says Griffin, 48, founder of Wayne J. Griffin Electric Inc. Now he's quicker to "ask permission" of his employees before making a decision and more likely to delegate important matters to them. "If I can't see that their actions can be positive," he says, "no one will ever develop to succeed me."

Immersion training for company chiefs is rapidly gaining currency. Varieties range from the Outward Bound flavor of Leadership at the Peak to instruction in conventional classroom settings. Leading business schools, executive-education startups, single-industry trade associations and other entities are developing and operating their own vehicles with a common aim: Give entrepreneurs a dose of battlefield training in leadership, and deliver it in the exclusive fellowship of company-heading peers who are the most likely to appreciate and enhance the experience.

"Once someone "has owned a company for a while, this is kind of the next step they need to take themselves--and their companies--to the next level," says Howard Stevenson a Harvard Business School professor and former chair of one of the best-known immersion vehicles for entrepreneurs and CEOs, Harvard University's Owner/President Management (OPM) program (see "Learning the Ropes" on page 63). "Many entrepreneurs have other degrees, of course, but beyond the specific or technical skills that got them started, they haven't learned about really running and leading the company."

Entrepreneurs often make the best students "because they're more acutely aware of the repercussions" of what they learn, compared with corporate officers, says Leonard Fuld, president of Fuld & Co. Inc., a Cambridge, Massachusetts, company that teaches business owners and corporate executives about competitive-intelligence gathering.

Also, entrepreneurs can use such training to make the transition from focusing solely on marketing and expanding the bottom line to embracing "the need for controls and profitability," says William Sihler, a business professor at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville and an expert on small-company turnarounds. "Maybe they can run the business up to $10 million or $20 million [in revenues], but if it gets larger, many haven't developed the skills and responsibility to decentralize--and they can get into serious problems and quite possibly fail."

TRAINING PAINS

To be sure, not every business owner is clamoring to partake In fact, the renowned Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia planned to offer a series of immersion courses just for entrepreneurs in 2002, but canceled them after paltry enrollment, Sihler says. He and others say executive education has taken a hit over the past couple of years because the sluggish economy has preoccupied company leaders and depleted resources available for such nonessentials.

Some experts caution that owners who participate in such programs can fall victim to expectations that are too high. "It's a place to pick up nuggets and do networking," says Noel Tichy, a University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, professor and developer of executive programs for General Electric Co., Ford Motor Co. and others. "But is this going to change the landscape of CEO preparedness? Only if you also think one day of lessons is going to change your game."

Yet plenty of entrepreneurs vouch for the value of immersion courses. Sandy Brown took the one-week Course for Presidents & CEOs from the American Management Association (AMA) recently and credits the experience with inspiring her to overhaul everything from her management style to the entire marketing strategy for her company, Elee-Tec Inc., a Valdosta, Georgia-based manufacturer of wire harnesses and circuit boards. Brown, 45, says she decided to take the course after concluding that Elec-Tec's culture had deteriorated. "[I wasn't feeling] the exuberance among employees I thought should be there," she says. "Then I realized the exuberance wasn't coming from me."

Brown wanted a program that went below the surface. "I wanted a heavy, intense type of program that would allow me to free-think and be ha an environment with other people who would have the same concerns I have," says Brown, whose company employs about 65 people and has about $4 million in annual sales.

Brown got what she wanted, and she has applied much of what she learned, especially in evaluating her customers. "We had been in a rut where we were treating all customers and potential customers identically, but I learned that I've got to be more selective and try to generate long-term relationships with customers," Brown explains.

Michael Carricarte started his company in Miami in 1986 right after high school and never got a college degree. But after learning about the OPM program at Harvard University, Carricarte, 36, decided to commit to the immersion course that required three consecutive weeks of instruction, three years in a row. The experience "helped me take the company out of just survival mode," says the president of Amedex Insurance Group, which provides major medical policies primarily to clients in Latin America and the Caribbean. "I've been able to take the company to a new level," Carricarte says, "with net growth of 30 or 35 percent between year one of the course and year three."

IS IT FOR YOU?

Here's how entrepreneurs make sure that such training is friendly immersion and not baptism by fire:

* Decide if it's really for you. The answer to this question depends on your life stage, the status of your company and other factors. Other options include less intense or more specialized training. "I wasn't sure I wanted the challenge," says Simone Williamson, 49, president and CEO of Be Our Guest Inc., a Boston-based event organizer, who completed the OPM course after receiving a scholarship from an alumnus.

Estaban Neely, 46, believed only an immersion class would be worth his time and attended the AMA program. "This can be a lonely position," says the founder and majority owner of eVerge Group, a Piano, Texas, computer services firm. "Owners have lots of issues that, a lot of times, managers don't see or feel."

* Pick "across" or "down." The first choice to make is between a horizontal experience with other entrepreneurs from many types of businesses, and the vertical sessions offered within many industries. Horizontal vehicles, such as the AMA and OPM programs, tend to be more expensive, more prestigious and better expand a participant's perspective.

Many entrepreneurs also vouch for vertical programs run by trade groups and other organizations that have an intimate knowledge of what it takes to succeed in a particular industry. Chuck Williams, 48, recently completed a course called the CEO Academy offered by the Georgia Bankers Association. The co-owner and CEO of North Georgia Bank in Watkinsville, Georgia, says it was crucial to be immersed with industry peers because "the regulatory aspects we operate under are one of the key distinctions, between running a small bank and any other small business."

Similarly, the National Pest Management Association (NPMA) offers a $300 NPMA Academy every year to its members. "It's a great way to network outside my little realm of Abilene, Texas, and find out what people are doing around the country and what I can do to be on the cutting edge," says Patricia Humphrey, 43, president and owner of Lester Humphrey Pest Control Service.