eLearning Mind introduces its President Simon Casuto (and self-professed foodie!)
What’s been your biggest revelation since entering the world of corporate learning and development?
I have had two significant revelations since starting with eLearning Mind. The first being the sheer size of the industry – I knew the aggregated dollar size from research but didn’t truly understand until we started working within the training budgets of large Fortune 500 companies. The other revelation came from seeing the difference in reactions between showing our custom trainings versus what had been shown prior (text on screen). We have had CLOs and Training Managers take us out to dinner to thank us after the success of their new training programs.
How are you reshaping the organization and company culture since coming on board?
I have had experience working for two small businesses and for one large multi-national corporation in both their headquarters and a satellite office. I have seen plenty of different office environments and one of the key priorities Andrew and I had was making our office fun. Employees have a lot of flexibility. We encourage all of our employees to participate in business development and creative discussions. A lot of emphasis is put on positive leadership and teamwork.
What’s your biggest challenge in trying to rapidly scale the organization?
Keeping eLearning Mind…eLearning Mind.
We have matured our internal development processes, restructured the end-to-end client communication procedures and introduced time-saving project management tools. A lot of my time recently has been geared towards helping a growing team gel together with a single vision to produce the highest quality eLearning products that our customers demand.
While we are growing rapidly we want to make sure the reasons that our big customers came to eLearning Mind in the first place don’t get lost as we scale. We want to be accessible to our clients, be on-hand to share practical and creative ideas whenever they need it and ensure that our products consistently stay unique and engaging. This starts with the fundamentals of hiring and processes. We thoroughly screen our new hires to make sure they are customer service oriented and, from a product perspective, have a great design sense. We’ve put strong processes in place to ensure great levels of communication with our clients and thorough QA.
Where is eLearning Mind today and where would you like it to be a year from now?
Today: Less than 100 working relationships with clients, developing their content.
Fast forward a year: A client base of several hundred corporate clients. Partnerships with consulting companies and subject matter experts who would like to scale their teaching and knowledge channels via e-learning technology.
eLearning Mind is at a very exciting place with great new hires with specialized skills changing the way traditional companies and organizations practice eLearning. I would love to see eLearning Mind develop a custom content play and lead the microlearning charge.
