About the Company

Learnnovators is a multiple-award winning organization that specializes in the design and development of custom e-learning solutions for the workplace. The company helps clients address skill and performance gaps in their workforce by creating tailor-made solutions that are aligned with their business goals.

They work as their clients’ extended arm/thought-partner with a focus on maximizing results and return on investment. Whether it is choosing the best mode of learning techniques tailored to organizational objectives, or designing interactive modules with the help of games or simulations, they have implemented innumerable programs to the satisfaction of a worldwide clientele. These have been deployed on a variety of contexts and devices, including mobile phones, tablets, interactive white boards, and interactive kiosks. They have also crafted several just-in-time, micro-learning modules and performance-support solutions for their clients.

Since inception, Learnnovators has successfully developed over 10,000 hours of e-learning content for a wide range of domains including Advertising, Automotive, Banking, Defense, Education, Engineering, Healthcare, Hospitality, HR Services, IT/ITES, Insurance, Manufacturing, Nuclear Energy, Oil and Gas, Retail, Safety, Soft Skills, and Telecom.

Current Market Landscape

According to industry reports, though North America continues to be the largest e-learning market in the world, Asia has been clocking the highest growth rates for e-learning in recent years. What’s more heartening to note is that India is the fastest country in terms of e-learning adoption. So things bode extremely well for the region.

Also, the rapid adoption of mobile technology is changing the game for e-learning. The stupendous growth of smartphones is allowing people greater access to the Internet via mobile devices, thereby enabling them to learn on the move. So mobile learning is definitely going to be the next big thing to watch out for.

Addressing the Challenges

Here are the two major challenges Learnnovators faces:

Challenge # 1 - People: Learnnovators is in the knowledge business; so people are their most valuable assets. One of their biggest challenges is to find people – not just people with the needed skills, but those with the right attitude – to do great work, to look for new things to learn every day, and to constantly raise the bar. Their mantra for recruitment is “Hire for Attitude, Train for Skill”. This makes hiring a lengthy and painstaking process, but one that pays off in the long run. Today, Learnnovators not only has a highly skilled and motivated team but also one of the lowest attrition rates in the industry.

Challenge # 2 - Pricing: India, as everyone knows, is an extremely price-sensitive market. But over the years, input costs have risen exponentially. So the challenge is to maintain a balance, of costs on one end and the fee they charge clients on the other. Learnnovators addresses this by providing better value, and by being thought partners to their clients. Again, most of the clients have stayed with them over several years.They have also been continuously striving to move up the value chain in the business.

Services

Learnnovators offers a host of learning services that include:

Custom E-Learning

Learnnovators designs and develops content to address an organization’s macro goals and objectives. They bring a wide range of practical expertise and latest research findings in the areas of instructional design, cognitive psychology, motivation and engagement, visual design and aesthetics, and methodologies, tools, and processes. Their custom e-learning services cover a variety of solutions ranging from high-end interactive scenarios and simulations, gamified interfaces, bite-sized learning nuggets, and slick animations and videos, to simple quick reference sheets and job aids.

Mobile Learning

They develop programs that work across devices and platforms such as mobile phones and tablets, enabling learners to take their learning wherever they go. They have successfully implemented several mobile-web and app based solutions for learning and performance support, covering a wide range of iOS and Android devices.

Gamified Learning

Games can provide the needed motivation for learners to pursue learning and apply it on the job. They can be developed at two levels:

-      Content gamification, which changes and re-aligns the content so that it is presented along with a gamified narrative; for example, a simulation that teaches team building skills

-      Structural gamification, which just adds gamification elements to pre-existing content; examples could the addition of points, badges and leaderboards in a course to encourage completion and mastery

Learnnovators develops highly engaging simulations, games and story-based narrations that incorporate the four foundational elements of gamification: Engagement, Autonomy, Mastery and Progression, and align wholly with their client’s objectives.

Blended Learning

With their extensive experience working across different modes of delivery, Learnnovators helps clients arrive at a perfect blend for their learning programs, incorporating strategies such as e-learning, mobile learning, micro learning, spaced practice, game-based learning, performance support systems, face-to-face training, and webinars.

Localization

Learnnovators has the expertise to balance cultural context with the technical accuracy of the information they impart. Their translation/localization work is done by speakers of the native language and professionals who understand the domain concerned. They have so far delivered effective learning in over two dozen languages, including Arabic, Cantonese, Czech, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Italian, Kannada, Malayalam, Mandarin, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Tamil, Telugu, and Turkish.

Learning Management System

Learnosphere is a powerful, flexible, and easy-to-use mobile-ready Learning Management System (LMS) from Learnnovators. It has an intuitive interface and a host of user-friendly features, and enables organizations to manage the entire learning and development process from enrollment and delivery to testing, tracking and reporting.

Learnosphere also supports learning best practices – such as social learning (via discussion forums), spaced retrieval (via pre-scheduled follow-up content), and learning-on-the-go (via Tin Can API).

Differentiating Factors

Learnnovators understands that learning challenges can be unique to every industry and business. And many times, having the best tools, techniques and approaches is not sufficient. Clients need a unified strategy to put them all together to arrive at solutions that work.

Learnnovators helps clients implement e-learning standards, conduct needs analysis, specify learning requirements, develop evaluation methods, enable LMS implementation, develop e-learning content, and review and fine-tune e-learning processes. They have had a long and successful journey helping organizations at various levels improve the performance of their workforce.

As for competition, it is wide-ranging. On one side of the spectrum are multi-national players who are doing the same thing as Learnnovators with a lot more people and larger infrastructure, while on the other end are the much smaller companies. Learnnovators are somewhere in between. The big companies are the ones that they consider as competition. They compete with them on the level and quality of work they do, the depth of understanding of client’s problems and the ability to come up with solutions to address them.

Clients

Learnnovators have been fortunate to work with some of the largest organizations in the world. Some of them are Alfa Laval, Daimler, Emerson Electric, Essilor, FLSmidth, Ford, Grundfos, Mahindra & Mahindra, MRF, Saint Gobain, Schneider, Steria, Sun Life, and Vacon.

Organizational Culture

Learnnovators promotes an open and friendly culture that encourages enthusiasm and creativity, and fosters learning. Honesty and transparency are practised in all dealings with clients, partners, vendors and employees, enabling them to see long-term value in their association with Learnnovators.

In an industry which is highly driven by numbers (number of hours spent on a project, number of bugs found, etc.), Learnnovators adopts a slightly different approach - they recognize and reward great attitude in their employees. This approach stems from the belief that the right attitude towards work and life automatically leads to greater involvement, better creativity, and higher productivity.

Learnnovators has three awards programs for employees, details of which are provided below:

Redwood Awards

Learnnovators’ annual Redwood Awards endorses committed, self-motivated employees who work hard at making a difference – be it by way of meeting unholy deadlines, clocking lengthy hours, coming through no matter what, or even just by being their usual flexible, conscientious self. It celebrates tenacious hard work and lofty ambitions. It also serves as a reminder that great attitude is not everlasting, unless worked upon.It credits both – “how you work” and “how you approach your work” – thus clearly emphasizing that while knowledge, skills and abilities help define a person’s work, the right attitude defines the person.

I’mpossible Awards

Learnnovators' I’mpossible Awards acknowledge and reward teams that make the impossible, possible.

There are some projects which are exacting, to say the least. Be it in terms of timelines, skills, technologies, or resources. During such situations comes a team which not only takes these scorching projects head on, but also turns them into amazing experiences for themselves and for clients. Learnnovators hails such teams for their unwavering commitment and indomitable courage, in the face of such seemingly impossible situations. For them, “Impossible” means “I’m Possible”.

Learnnovation Awards

Introduced recently, Learnnovation Awards recognizes Innovations at Learnnovators. Team members are encouraged to identify an area of work and suggest/make an improvement in the same. These suggestions/improvements need not be restricted to one’s own area of work. The results of this initiative have already starting showing up in various quarters of our business, large and small – right from the way we approach projects, to how they add value to their client interactions, to how they bond together as a team, sparking further learnnovations in the process.

Harboring Innovation

From childhood most people have been programmed (by parents, teachers, friends and family) to celebrate success and shun failure. This mindset has resulted in most of employees preferring to travel the beaten path rather than charting a new one because the former is safe and can offer success while the latter is risky and can lead to failure.

As known to all, risk-taking forms the essence of creativity and innovation. So at Learnnovators, they offer something to their employees that most organizations do not or maybe, are even scared to offer - the FREEDOM TO FAIL. They have consciously built a culture where team members are encouraged to think, ideate, explore, experiment and innovate without the fear of being ridiculed or reprimanded in case they fail.

Their awards, as well as a host of other initiatives, are designed to support them in this constant endeavor.

Roadmap Ahead

Learnnovators are already working with committed business partners who represent Learnnovators in different geographies. This year, they have plans to set up their own office in the US. They believe that a physical presence in the largest e-learning market in the world will help them spike their growth rate even further.

Quick Facts

1) Year of founding: 2003

2) Funding information: Bootstrapped (Self-Funded)

3) Founding members: Ravi Pratap Singh, Srividya Kumar

4) Office locations: Chennai

5) Company strength: 35

6) Website: http://www.learnnovators.com