‘Training the Trainer’ at Thomson Scientific

Introduction

Thomson Scientific is part of Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals with proforma revenue of $12.4 billion in 2007 and approximately 50,000 employees in 93 countries.

The Problem

The Hemingway Corporation was approached by Thomson Scientific early in 2007 to work on the seamless relocation of their UK Patent Department from the UK to India.

A number of key staff were selected to go out to India and transfer their knowledge and skills to the new recruits at the new location. The challenge was to provide these staff with training skills as quickly and efficiently as possible to ensure that the India operation was up to full speed as quickly as possible to ensure a smooth transfer of patent operations.

The Hemingway Corporation was asked to provide a tailored ‘Train the Trainer’ course, teaching people how to pass their knowledge of how to classify patents on to others at the same time as taking into account the challenging cultural differences that would be encountered in India.

The Solution

The Hemingway Corporation brought its signature “Mission Impossible” approach to the problem. Its highly qualified team of trainers devised a three-day course that created a step-by-step approach to teaching training skills by looking at how people learn, different learning styles, presentation skills, listening and questioning skills, gathering feedback, coaching skills, etc, all put into the context of training in India.

The course was interactive, with delegates producing a presentation on their area of expertise at the end of their learning experience. The outcome was a self-confident team of professionals, fully equipped with the skills needed to undertake a successful skills and knowledge transfer in a different cultural environment.

Where is it today?

It is now a year since the delegates went out to India. Positive feedback was received from Thomson Scientific: “The India project is fully operational and hit all the targets and plans we set out. In fact the engineering teams are performing really well. We now have 584 staff in India, of which 210 are for Patents. The UK team is now at 56 staff with all QC and Policy teams fully operational. All the training people did really well and the feedback in most cases was excellent. Several of the trainers did stay with the business and have been back to India to carry out additional training. None of this would have been possible without the dedication of the Hemingway Corp team of trainers and their innovative approach to training that ensured a high knowledge retention rate”.

In summary, the Project has been a major success and Thomson Reuters have been impressed with the training outcomes provided by The Hemingway Corporation.