Boeing Canada Technology’s award-winning, lifelong learning philosophy is a blueprint for better business

Below is an excerpt from “Flying Colours,” an article about Boeing Canada Technology’s workplace education program that appears in the first issue of Canadian CEO. If you would like to receive a copy of the full article for reprint in a newspaper or newsletter, please contact ABC CANADA by e-mail at info@abc-canada.org.

Mark Ross, President Boeing Canada Technology

Mark Ross, president and general manager of Boeing Canada Technology (BCT), believes that when it comes to optimizing a company’s performance, some things are more important than hardware. “If you look at our facility, there’s nothing that we have in terms of property, plant or equipment that a competitor can’t produce relatively easily or relatively quickly,” he says. “The only real differentiator is our people.”

Which explains why, even after the Winnipeg-based manufacturer of commercial-airplane components chopped its staff by almost half to 860 employees in the wake of September 11, the company’s extensive workplace training program has not been trimmed - and, Ross says adamantly, is not on the table for trimming. “When you’re talking about cutting back investment, the last place you’d look is where you have the ability to differentiate yourself from your competitor.”

BCT’s programs preceded Ross’ arrival in Winnipeg late in 2001. Over the course of a decade, the company had already invested almost $1 million developing such programs as its Navigating Workplace Documents curriculum and the Math for Deaf Learners video series, winner of a Conference Board of Canada Award for Excellence in Workplace Literacy in 2002.