Executive Education
Jon Shepherd: Chief Learning Officer, Mars Inc.
by Jim Johnson
Mars Inc., one of the largest, most dominant private companies, began humbly in a Tacoma, Washington, home kitchen 97 years ago. Family has always played a large part in its management. But as the company grew into a $21 billion multinational with more than 40,000 employees, two senior family members retired and management changed hands, top executives feared that its century-long culture and focus would disappear.
To compound fears, an internal audit revealed that the secretive company behind such icons as Snickers and M&M’s was running nine different versions of its corporate values training program, sometimes fomenting inconsistent messages. Continued decentralization and globalization highlighted Mars’s need for unified, formalized training in each of its offices in 65 countries.
So in February 2005, Mars hired Corporate University Xchange, a Harrisburg, Pennsylvania–based firm that helps C-level executives overhaul their educational programs, to launch “Mars University” in 2006. “Previously, learning initiatives were fragmented and disorganized at Mars, and it was hard for employees to apply what they learned to the job,” says CorpU president and CEO Sue Todd. “There was no consistency across the company.”
At Todd’s urging, Mars created the position of “Chief Learning Officer” to be in charge of transforming the company’s new training programs and appointed Jon Shepherd, the associate engagement and communications director, to run its new training initiatives. Shepherd, 58, broke down Mars U. into 10 colleges, including R&D, IT, Management and Leadership. He set up a “governing body” that oversees the university — including a president and 10 deans. A large part of the curriculum is helping employees and managers improve leadership and job skills. Since Mars U.’s implementation, the Lean/Mars Operating System College alone has saved the company around $300 million, which it attributes to its learning efforts.
“The benefit,” Shepherd maintains, “was to get a competitive edge using learning to meet business challenges and provide consistency around the world in an efficient manner.”