Pitt Business e-newsletter Issue 13, January 2009
Transporting the Essentials
Bombardier Inc. is a $17.5 billion company headquartered in Montréal, Canada with 59,800 employees, a presence in more than 60 countries, and known for innovative transportation solutions. The Center for Executive Education (CEE) of the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh specializes in bringing high-caliber executive education to business professionals. So it is very fitting that Bombardier Transportation's System Division came to Katz for the essentials. Or, rather that CEE transported the Essentials to Bombardier.
MBA Essentials for Bombardier was an intensive certificate program tailored to fit the business acumen of employees in Bombardier's Transportation System Division and the needs identified by internal executives. For 10 weeks, 40 Bombardier participants at the West Mifflin, Pa. site, engaged in weekly, three-hour courses on subjects like innovation, leadership and team building, strategic development, entrepreneurship, supply chain management, value creation, and market strategy.
Bombardier executives took an active role in the program, conducting a weekly quality review of the class to further synchronize program content to their day-to-day operations.
MBA Essentials is similar to the Neihu Rapid Transit System in Taipei, Taiwan, which Bombardier plans to have fully operational by the end of January 2009. The project consists of re-equipping the existing line and vehicles and constructing a new line with a fleet of new vehicles. Both lines will operate as one system, with the combined fleets operating interchangeably on either line. Like the Neihu system, Bombardier employees brought their existing knowledge to the MBA Essentials course, while gaining new and valuable information. In the rail industry, this is known as a customized solution that benefits all of the stakeholders.
Mike Fetsko, vice president for Bombardier Transportation, Systems Division, saw the program as one that added insight to innovative leadership and key critical managerial concepts. He saw every MBA Essentials for Bombardier session bring participants closer to the goal of a work environment with fewer boundaries to deter effective working relationships, allowing participants to focus more on innovation.
