How Loeb Leadership Differentiated Their Training Content

In 2017, there is one thing we can all agree on: people have taken control over where, when, and how they consume information. As consumer habits shape expectations for workplace content delivery, professional training and management consulting firms are increasingly aware of the need to augment traditional print-based training materials with digital and mobile formats. However, uncertainty about how to make this shift while protecting intellectual property stalls the efforts of many firms.

In this post, we'll explore how Loeb Leadership Development Group solved this challenge, why they thought doing so was important for their business, and what business impacts they saw as a result.

Company Background

Loeb Leadership Development Group focuses on developing high-potential and high-achieving members in law firms, businesses, and student and community leadership groups. They provide expert training and executive coaching services to all levels of leaders and managers, delivering measurable results by combining training and coaching expertise with a passion that paves the way to success. Loeb’s clients include top-tier legal services firms and other large and mid-sized organizations that place a priority on excellent management, exemplary leadership, respectful and skillful communication, and diverse and innovative work cultures and collaboration.

Key Challenges

As a leadership consulting company, brand and reputation are critical to Loeb's long-term success. Loeb recognized an opportunity to better align their brand with their leadership training approach through digital delivery of their materials. By delivering their training materials in printed formats only, Loeb worried that they were not keeping pace with their customers’ expectations and would soon be viewed as “archaic.”

Additionally, Loeb’s customers were increasingly concerned about their business’ ecological impacts and were evaluating partners based on how those partners would align with their green initiatives. Loeb saw this as an opportunity to reduce their ecological footprint, reduce their operational (printing management) costs, and gain customers at the same time.

Implementing Digital and Mobile Training Materials

Planning the Implementation

In identifying a partner to help implement digital and mobile materials, Loeb had several key requirements:

1. It was important that their digital solution enable “just-in-time” delivery of content, allowing them to be more flexible in delivering customer resources.
2. Their content had to be protected and remain in their control.
3. Loeb's branding had to be reflected in the new formats.
4. The learning curve, for them and their customers, had to be low.

Loeb chose SharedBook as a partner to accomplish these goals in part due to SharedBook's combination of an integrated multi-format training platform with supportive professional services.

Deploying the Solution

The implementation process consisted of 6 hours of configuration and training with the SharedBook Professional Services team during which Loeb's staff was taught how to migrate existing content to their SharedBook instance, create collections of materials for clients, and deploy and manage access to those resources.

SharedBook met and exceeded Loeb's goal of just-in-time content delivery. In addition to enabling anytime, anywhere access via digital and mobile devices, the SharedBook platform also allows them to update previously-published content and push those updates in real time to users.

And no matter how learners access their content, Loeb maintains control over their intellectual property. While learners can read and interact with their content via desktop and mobile apps, they are prevented from saving local copies. Moreover, Loeb has the ability to retract their content from any user's device at any time.

Finally, SharedBook's private-branded web and mobile apps allow Loeb to keep its brand front and center as learners interact with their materials. This is an important aspect of the SharedBook solution for Loeb as it allows them to connect their brand with the innovative content delivery experiences modern learners expect.

Business Impacts

Client Acquisition and Retention

Loeb highlights their SharedBook capabilities in discussions with clients and prospects to help differentiate and add value to their services. As a result, SharedBook has had a direct, positive impact on Loeb’s customer acquisition and client satisfaction.

Reduced Operational Costs

By integrating a secure digital and mobile training solution with a network of 1,800 printing locations, SharedBook allows Loeb to print materials virtually anywhere they deliver training. With free local delivery, this allows Loeb to eliminate shipping costs that would otherwise be incurred from centralized printers.

Additionally, Loeb is confident and excited that delivering private branding significantly improves their user experience. “Private branding is a high-quality experience and aligns our high-quality training with our brand image."

In Their Words

In summarizing their experience with SharedBook, Gordon Loeb, COO, said, "We are impressing clients with a user-friendly tool that enhances the learning experience. Thank you for providing a tool that helps lift our brand and service to our clients!"