Early next year, ECR Europe is to launch pilot schemes for the General Learning Programme, an educational programme that brings the learnings of ECR to frontline managers at retailers and suppliers.
Elsevier Food International, Vol. 6, Number 4, November 2003
Steve Foster

The ECR Europe movement has recognised the need for such a programme for years but naturally enough its first task was to change many a traditional mind-set at head office levels and remove the silo mentality that erects a barrier to the idea of working together. It has definitely been a case of not running before learning to walk the ECR talk.
The idea of the General Learning Programme was outlined at the annual ECR Europe Conference in Berlin in May this year. An earlier indication of the idea of extending the ECR learning curve was voiced by Sir Terry Leahy, chief executive of Tesco and the current co-chair of ECR Europe, at the 2002 annual ECR conference in Barcelona. Leahy intimated that the ECR net needed to be cast further not just to frontline managers but also to other areas aside from FMCG categories such as fresh foods and non-food.

Sir Terry Leahy: "The General Learning Programme will make a really noticeable difference because in the years ahead you will have a whole professional generation that just approaches things differently."

Moving forward, Leahy pointed out to Elsevier Food International (September 2003) that the transfer of ECR learnings and skills to frontline managers was key to ECR Europe moving ahead. "It needs to be trained into and educated in a whole generation of frontline managers [retailers] working side by side with manufacturers," he said. Speaking to EFI in Berlin, Leahy added that "It will make a really noticeable difference because in the years ahead you will have a whole professional generation that just approaches things differently. "

Learning together Bernard Karli, ECR Europe's programme director, comments on the need for the General Learning Programme: "We need to have simple modules for frontline staff who meet the customers so that they can understand what ECR is all about," he says. "Category management, for example. They can think 'what is category management?', 'what does it mean for me?' and 'how does it work between retailer and supplier?' It's what a French colleague of mine called a 'massification' of the theory bluebooks." Other content areas will include CPR, VMI, CPFR and EDI. This may be extended to areas such as RFID, risk and value improvement and ethical and environmental issues within ECR.
The structure of learning will feature in-house face-to-face training that brings together retailers and suppliers in the same training room. Led by a professional trainer, the programme will outline a topic such as category management and establish its purpose. The students will then be required to create an action plan.
Karli pointed out: "Retailers and manufacturers have to learn together. Individual companies within ECR Europe are very good at optimising the internal supply chain but to take more steps forward it can't be done alone. And ultimately it's about understanding the customer and consumer and that is best achieved together. The General Learning Programme is a 'learning together' programme."
The second part of the structure will involve self-tutorial distance learning modules over the Internet, available in the language of each participating ECR Europe country. The e-learning modules will vary from topic to topic. Each module will feature, for example, checklists, which Karli called 'The tool kit: To pass a module, an individual will need to correctly answer a checklist quiz.

"We need to have simple modules for frontline staff who meet the customers so that they can understand what ECR is all about."   Bernard Karli, ECR Europe's Programme Director

Pilot schemes
Every successful student will be awarded certification on each module. This certification will be recognised by companies across Europe within the ECR Europe movement.
Karli pointed out that some modules will be of more value to some individuals than others. "If you work in logistics then there maybe only one or two modules in the category management learning programme that concerns you." Funding for the General Learning Programme was made available by the ECR Europe Executive Board in early September 2003. Pilot schemes will begin in three of the leading ECR countries France, Italy and the UK, and workshop training is scheduled to go live in the early months of 2004. Other leading ECR Europe countries will join the programme at appropriate periods.
Early indications of the progress of the pilots should be made available to delegates at the 2004 ECR Europe annual conference in Brussels in May.
Karli emphasised that the General Learning Programme Programme is a pan-European initiative by design. "It is more efficient to do this on an ECR Europe level rather than with individual country ECR boards because it about sharing best practices."
In just over a year's time ECR Europe will celebrate its tenth birthday. The movement has come a long way since its launch conference in Geneva in early 1995. The successful implementation of the General Learning Programme would be a value-added cause for celebration.