VUCA and change are good words to summarize my experiences at PMI Production Management Institute during the seven years in my role as Director of Education and Research.
Undoubtedly the biggest disruption and following change was early 2020 when the pandemic caused lockdowns and various restrictions. This forced us to redesign our onsite supply chain education programs to be completely run online in virtual classrooms. Delivering programs online was completely opposite compared to my start at PMI in September 2015. At that time our education programs were for 99% delivered in an onsite setting.
Prior to the pandemic, we had already made plans to offer more education programs in an online setting, but the majority of our customers, companies as well as participants, preferred onsite trainings as they highly appreciated the direct interaction between trainers and participants, less interference from daily business and the networking and sharing opportunities. Therefore, we had never fully made the conversion towards online programs.
But given all restrictions and lockdown measures, there was no other way than to immediately convert to online virtual classrooms. Fortunately, a number of our customers were willing to embrace the concept of the virtual classroom quickly. Though we already had some experience with webinars, the concept of the virtual classroom was also new to us as we wanted to mirror the onsite experience to the virtual classroom with a lot of interactivity, participant engagement and group work.
After the first launch of our virtual classroom concept, we further finetuned the concept to a successful formula. As a team and with our trainer involvement we made a huge effort and managed to launch and facilitate the virtual classrooms in a very successful way. A highlight was that we were asked to present the virtual classroom concept to the APICS trainer community worldwide.
Looking back, establishing the virtual classroom concept was an extremely interesting process which gave a lot of energy as we did know what we wanted, but were finding out the way how to do what we wanted ! A big thanks once more for our team and the many trainers involved in the virtual classroom concept.
Changes also occurred at an increased frequency in the portfolio of our education partner APICS. During my time at PMI, the five modules of CPIM were reconfigured to two modules, CPIM Part 1 and Part 2, the name changed from Certified in Production and Inventory Management to Certified in Planning and Inventory Management and in 2023 both modules will again be reconfigured into one single module Certified in Planning and Inventory management with only one exam attached. Next to that also the new certification Certified in Logistics, Transport and Distribution was launched in 2016. And also the name APICS went through a change as in 2019 ASCM, the Association for Supply Chain Management was launched with APICS remaining within the ASCM brand as certification brand in the area Learning and Development. Recently also the SCOR model was overhauled and the new SCOR Digital Standard was launched. Next to these changes in the ASCM/ APICS portfolio, also the certifications had major changes with the learning systems and exams now being much more prominently part of the training package. So never a dull moment, you could say……..
Changes also occurred in the portfolio of another education partner, the Demand Driven Institute. New programs and certifications were launched over the years, a number of new book releases took place and last but not least PMI was part of the organization of the Demand Driven World conferences in Frankfurt and Amsterdam.
Another change was the fact that we included the Supply Chain Business Simulation The Fresh Connection in the majority of our programs. To be able to handle this integration of The Fresh Connection in our courses, we also had to increase our base of Certified trainers in The Fresh Connection. Many of our existing trainers and new trainers took up this challenge to become certified in The Fresh Connection, so we now have established a large trainer base of certified trainers in The Fresh Connection. Also there, a big thank you to all the trainers which invested time and effort despite their busy schedules to master The Fresh Connection and to become certified. Also in the portfolio of Inchainge, another education partner of PMI, new simulations were added next to The Fresh Connection and The Cool Connection with the launch of The Blue Connection and recently The Triple Connection.
And speaking of trainers, one of the elements I liked most in my role was the opportunity to work with passionate supply chain practitioners in different industries. As I am now moving on to my new position at Involvation as Director The Value Chain Academy, I would once again like to take the opportunity to thanks all the PMI trainers for the excellent and inspiring cooperation, the ideas and best practices you shared with me and the PMI Team and the good laughs we had at many occasions (especially during the Trainer Challenges of The Fresh Connection where one team member always had to remind another team member of a specific occasion, I will not mention names…………)
Thanks all, I very much enjoyed the interaction and exchange we had.
Over the past seven years we also worked with many valued customers to roll out supply chain education programs and trainings on a global scale. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all our customers for the excellent cooperation, exchanging of ideas and concepts and the trust you gave us to support your supply chain education initiatives.
Considering the last seven years I have for sure experienced a lot of Volatility in the market for training and education, a lot of Uncertainty regarding the distortions of which the pandemic was a major one, a lot of Complexity with the many changes and challenges we had to deal with within our PMI and trainer team and a lot of ambiguity as certain developments and decisions unfolded in different ways compared to our expectations and interpretations. But relating VUCA to PMI, there was always Variation in the content of my job, we Unbolted new opportunities and directions, Care was taken of our customer and trainer base and last but not least it was an Awesome time.
A big thanks to PMI, the PMI Team, the PMI trainers and our customers, I very much enjoyed my time with you all.
All the best and take care.
Best regards,
Stefan Hoogervorst
Director of Education and Research
