Enterprise University – a series of business development courses put on by Enterprise Bank & Trust – recently kicked off its fall semester featuring interactive webinars taught by industry experts from across the nation including in the Los Angeles area.
Enterprise University, which is in its 21st year, is offering courses on topics including video content solutions, cybersecurity trends, Artificial Intelligence and more. With its headquarters in Missouri, Enterprise originally started EU in 2003 with in person courses in St. Louis and eventually expanded to a number of other cities.
Once the pandemic hit, EU shifted to online webinars which in turn, increased the program’s reach as participants were no longer limited to the specific cities EU operated in.
To maintain the interactive element that in-person courses provide, EU’s lectures are live streamed so participants can chime in with questions and comments.
Anne Laguzza, founder and chief executive of The Works Consulting, a Long Beach-based consulting firm specializing in human resources, leadership development and performance coaching solutions, returned for her second semester as a lecturer at EU earlier this month.
Teaching a course on the principles of team leadership, Laguzza said she caters her lessons to the core tenets of leadership regardless of a company’s industry, size or geography.
“I want leaders to love coming to work and I want their employees to love coming to work and a lot of that comes from development of a leader’s skills,” she said.
EU is free to anyone interested, even those who are not Enterprise customers.
John Meek, Enterprise’s executive vice president and director of commercial banking, said participants “rave” about the program.
“You can’t put a price on education and the fact that we can do it for free is a huge differentiator for us,” Meek said.
With participants from all parts of the country, EU allows for diverse experiences and perspectives.
With that in mind, Laguzza said she plans on facilitating small group discussions in her course this semester.
“I do find that (collaboration) is fun too, because then they get to meet each other and hopefully they’re mixed up with people they don’t know, and they get to explore what other companies are doing,” Laguzza said.
While she values business theory, Laguzza said she prefers a solutions-centric, tangible approach with her teaching, especially considering people come to these classes during their free time with the goal of strengthening their professional skills.
“The greatest compliment I always receive is that people say ‘not only did you tell me why I should do this, but you gave me the actual one, two, three steps that I could turn around and apply immediately,’” Laguzza said.
“That always stands out because I want my course to be valuable to people who are there so they feel like it’s really worth their time because we have such limited time,” she added.
Laguzza has observed an emerging trend, finding that many employers are promoting within a company’s existing employee pool rather than outsourcing. As a result, she said this can lead to someone without much leadership experience rising to high-ranking roles. Thus, Laguzza said leadership training is especially relevant right now.
Over the years, EU has garnered more than 40,000 participants and aims to provide people with skills and development training at all levels of their careers.
