 |
| Get the latest Packaging news and link to other industry resources. |
DISCUSSION
GROUP
What's on your mind?
Packaging Horizons
Going Forward To School
Professional management and development training can help position your career for future opportunities.
By Ellen Beal
OK class. Here's a multiple-choice question. Management training is:
a) Something you pick up on the job
b) A nice career boost that you'll think about when your job and home life settle down
c) The single most important step you can take to ensure a long and satisfying career
If you said (c), go to the head of the class. In this era of company mergers, downsizing, and position obsolescence, keeping your business and leadership skills current is a nearly surefire way to maintain a competitive edge. By updating your management skills toolbox, you send several important messages to current and future employers. "First, you're showing management that you're flexible," says Janet Walsh, director of Worldwide Human Resources for Mead Packaging, Atlanta. "You're also showing them that you can learn to take on new challenges."
Next, by taking charge of your career and professional advancement, you're proving you're committed to improving your performance and your value to the company. Finally, by taking the right management courses, you're gaining a broader understanding of your company's business. "You gain a multiplicity of skills," says Walsh, "that will help you understand your company's business thoroughly from many perspectives."
The ability to understand how a company functions, how organizations work or don't work, how teams overcome obstacles, and how to lead can translate directly into better job performance--whatever your current role or background. The days of knowing how to do one job well, says Walsh, are over.
"You can't afford to focus on one discipline. You need to work toward becoming a good business person, no matter what role you play in the company."
Luckily for those who want to keep their management skills current or develop new professional skills, there are more options than ever. Full-blown traditional MBA programs, high-tech distance learning courses in which you participate over the Internet, executive education programs that focus on building a particular skill, and professional workshops and seminars sponsored by employers or professional associations are but a few of the choices. No one program is right for everyone. In fact, over the course of a career, today's savvy packaging professional is likely to have taken several types of professional management training. Choosing the best approach at any given time in your professional development comes down to time, budget and your own career goals.
Full-degree ahead
Certainly degree programs take the most commitment--both in time and money. But they remain one of the most effective steps you can take to advance your career in general management. Walsh, who has several advanced degrees including an MBA, says recent studies show that furthering your education is still the single-most reliable determinant of the dollars you're going to make.
But giving a boost to your earning potential--as important as that may be--isn't the only benefit. Depending on the degree program you choose, you can groom yourself for positions of greater technical responsibility, move yourself into taking on a broader business role, or even change careers altogether.
Thinking about your career goals and how the degree will get you there is critical. If you want to position yourself for increasingly responsible technical positions, for example, an MBA may not be the best choice. Besides requiring a very large commitment, working toward this business degree may be seen by others as an attempt on your part to step out of your field.
That's the view of Nina Tarley, section manager for a Kraft Foods' Tarrytown, NY, facility. Tarley, who heads an international packaging group, updates her business skills constantly. "When you work toward an MBA," she explains, "you send a strong message to management that your interests lie outside engineering."
That's not necessarily a bad thing, if you want to move into a more general management role, counters Walsh. But, she explains, if your focus is on obtaining a more functionally specific position, you may do better to pursue a degree that combines engineering or technical management with business courses.
Finding the right degree program has never been easier. Not only are there more programs out there than ever, but you'll also find more flexible scheduling and more varied locations. And, with the proliferation of correspondence courses, you no longer have to limit yourself to a degree program offered by your local college or university. A quick search on the Internet (under Distance Learning or within the home pages of colleges) will provide you with hundreds of courses to choose from.
Executive education
Of course not everyone has the time or motivation to earn a full-blown traditional degree. In fact, the fastest-growing type of professional training is short-term courses that focus on specific management or business skills. If you want some of the same grounding as an MBA, for example, but don't have the time or energy to devote two years or more to a degree, you may want to look into executive education programs.
Colleges tailor these short but intense business programs to busy mid- and senior-level managers who would otherwise not be able to attend business school. Structured as three- to eight-week programs, or weekend sessions spread out over a year, executive education courses can afford a good grasp on leadership and general business principles relatively quickly. Exec ed isn't cheap, however. A three-week program may cost $8,500 or more--but the best programs provide an intensive learning experience, plenty of great networking opportunities, and immediate insights that you can put to use back home in the office.
Short takes
While somewhat expensive, continuing education courses can provide a crystal clear view of the big business picture. Halfway through her MBA, Rani Dasi says her classroom studies are broadening her understanding of her company and industry.
"My courses are helping me make sound business decisions," says Dasi, manager of capital administration for Stone Container in Chicago. "I can directly apply the concepts I learn in class to my professional work."
Like Dasi, Donna Barsamian, director of marketing for Universal Folding Box in Hoboken, NJ, decided to enroll in an MBA to gain more knowledge about "the financial side of the business." Even after her first semester, Barsamian says her classes are paying off in the workplace. "The courses are stimulating," says Barsamian. "I've taken courses in Organization Behavior, Corporations, and the Legal Environment and I feel more confident in my ability to understand how people work in business. The courses are helping me see all different perspectives," she says. And, not coincidentally, fit nicely into the career development toolboxes of both these women on the move.
Ellen Beal is managing editor of Packaging Horizons Magazine.
RETURN TO PACKAGING HORIZONS EDITORIAL HIGHLIGHTS PAGE