...Leica focuses on ILX Group for financial competency and clarity ...

- Ulrich Mueller Global HR, Leica Microsystems

The Challenge

Leica Microsystems is an innovator, manufacturer and supplier of high precision optical products such as microscopes and related instruments. Its products are used in a variety of applications requiring vision, measurement, analysis or lithography, including applications in the life sciences (such as bio-technology research and medicine), the material sciences, industrial inspection and the semiconductor manufacturing industry.

Headquartered in Wetzlar, Germany, Leica has manufacturing facilities, sales offices and 200 dealers around the world. The company has 3750 employees and serves customers in over 100 countries generating annual sales revenues of Euro 604m (2002).

Business challenges such as increasing pressure on profit margin and the need to reduce costs persuaded Leica's senior management to seek an effective way of educating managers so they would have a sufficient understanding of the financial elements that determine the results of business operations. In particular, senior managers recognised that it was essential for its non-financial managers to increase their understanding of how finance can determine the results of business operations.

The Solution

Leica decided to opt for a solution that it had never used before -- e-learning and it turned to ILX Group, one of the most experienced providers of financial e-learning programmes. In co-operation with ILX Group, Leica developed a financial competency programme with several courses covering financial essentials ranging from Financial Fundamentals to Operational Analysis and Working Capital Management.

Ulrich Mueller, Global HR, Leica Microsystems, says:

The Benefit

The ILX Group e-learning programme has proved to be a great success at Leica. It has received very positive feedback from both users and senior management in the company.

A total of 73 percent of the 188 managers in the programme have completed either all or most of the courses offered. "Participation by 75% is very good and general feedback on the quality and effectiveness of the programme has been very positive," says Mueller. "ILX Group has enabled us to achieve a cost-efficient solution which helps employee training and makes employee development simple and effective." One of the key benefits for the organisation is that it is helping its non-financial managers to understand how their decisions can influence the company's business performance.

The ILX Group programme has proved to be a cost-effective solution for Leica because it is quick and simple to manage and time and cost is not wasted on staff traveling and attending classroom courses. Also, e-learning makes it easy to measure progress so that individuals and senior managers can assess the level of development. Those using the ILX Group courses like them because they can learn at their own pace and the course content was simple to adapt to the business environment and challenges faced by Leica.

As a result of the success of the ILX Group e-learning programme, e-learning is being recommended to other divisions within the Leica organisation and the company is also considering e-learning for product training.