Leading a Learning Revolution

The Defense Acquisition University (DAU), the educational institution that trains procurement professionals for the US Department of Defense, had a rocky start. Its original inefficient structure did not adapt well to technology or policy demands. Its client service was inadequate and slow. That was then and this is now: DAU is a superb, award-winning corporate university – some say the world’s best. How did it make this dramatic transition? DAU President Frank J. Anderson and strategic planner Christopher R. Hardy work with writer Jeffrey Leeson to explain its remarkable transformation in their primer on the “reinvention of training.” Anderson and Hardy were hands-on at the institution’s rebirth. getAbstract recommends this inside view to chief learning officers, human resources executives and trainers. It explains the steps DAU’s team followed (and continue to follow) to build and maintain a world-class corporate university. Alas, the book also features a barrage of military acronyms and an excess of praise for DAU’s overall greatness. Still, the authors have a great deal of experience to offer training and education professionals who want to set up or improve their corporate universities – and they share their knowledge generously.