After an absence of 10 years, strategic planning has returned as a prime management issue. New attitudes, new approaches, and new players have emerged with new practices. A good strategy can make a company more attractive to customers and investors as well as a better place to work. (JOW)

Describes the electronic learning program prescribed by Cisco director John Chambers. To respond to his challenge that the program would have to be exemplary and serve thousands, stakeholders integrated the company's e-learning initiatives. (JOW)

Education at IBM has jumped to the top of company priorities, joining key business functions such as manufacturing and finance that report directly to top management. It is also moving out of the classroom into a world of advanced technology. (JOW)

Federal Express uses Service Quality Indicators to measure customer satisfaction and innovative training methods such as an interactive video network, pay-for-performance/pay-for-knowledge, and a Leadership Evaluation and Awareness Process. (SK)

Describes the stages of a team performance model: orientation, trust building, goal/role clarification, commitment, implementation, high performance, and renewal. (SK)

The chief executive officer of Xerox demonstrates how his company uses education and training to improve quality and productivity in the work force. Leadership and the quest for quality in human resource development are illustrated. (SK)

Electronic learning has made knowledge accessible to a large number of people and is challenging training's basic tenets. Traditional training will persist, but not as a growth sector. The rise of e-learning divides training into corporate learning and training for strategic purposes. (JOW)

Studies conducted at the Institute for Research on Learning demonstrate that, at work, people learn by doing things together. Communities of practice--groups that develop and share ways of doing things--are fundamental elements of learning organizations. (SK)