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Brian McNamara

(978) 745-4878
brian@hawthornemedia.com

Online Resources:

For more information, or to order Breakaway, please visit:
www.breakawayperformance.com

Editorial Resources:

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About the Author:
Background on Charles L. Fred

March 6, 2001

Atlanta, GA -- Speed to market is the key to success in this new economy. But can employees keep up? How do employees learn fast enough to roll out a product or service in "Internet time"? Charles L. Fred, author of the just released book, Breakaway, contends that organizations can accelerate speed to learning using a new methodology that achieves worker proficiency up to 80% faster than traditional training systems.

"Unless we dramatically accelerate the learning process," said Fred, "we are stuck with fast rollouts of products and services and slow employee delivery of those products to customers. This syndrome hinders business, frustrates customers and delays earnings."

"A fundamental flaw in most business learning systems today is that they are not linked to the value promised to the customer," Fred continued. "And as businesses continue efforts to increase the speed at which they deliver new products or services, the consequences of this disconnect could be staggering in terms of customer loyalty and financial performance."

The book introduces a revolutionary model for performance improvement which is designed to build a worker's proficiency in a fraction of the time achieved by traditional training and development systems. The first of three fundamental elements of Fred's model include the identification of a proficiency threshold, a point specific to a particular job role at which a worker can convert knowledge through action to deliver the promised value to the customer.

Secondly, the book explores how adults really learn and discusses how to accelerate a critical phase of the learning process, the accumulation of experience. "Proficiency requires knowledge," Fred noted, "but it also requires the knowledge that comes alive through experience."

Finally, Fred examines importance of measuring cycle time to proficiency, a business metric that reflects the time it takes for workers to reach the proficiency threshold and that holds wide-reaching implications to an organization's competitive goals. Comprehension and use of this new metric of human development is critical to increasing the speed by which an organization can deliver on its value proposition.

"Business leaders are beginning to understand that competitive advantage lies not just in the faster development of new products and services," said Fred, "but also in the faster development in the expertise of the people who deliver those products and services." Breakaway's purpose is to excite a new set of beliefs regarding the education of today's worker and to catalyze the change that is necessary to compete in today's economy. Its concise format enables the business reader to read Breakaway in the time it takes to fly from Chicago to San Francisco or from Denver to Miami. Additionally, the author has created an online communication space at www.breakawayperformance.com to gather feedback and host threaded discussions on the concepts presented in the book.

Charles L. Fred is a thought leader in performance improvement and an expert in learning speed. He is President and CEO of Avaltus, Inc. (www.avaltus.com), a leading provider of e-learning content management services to the world's largest companies. In the past twenty years he as directed major change efforts in both the manufacturing and service industries, has consulted to successful companies around the globe, and has been a frequent speaker to major business forums and groups of senior executives.

Breakaway (ISBN 0-929290-06-2) was published by Grand River Publishing, LLC and can be purchased online by visiting www.breakawayperformance.com.

About Avaltus

Avaltus is a leading provider e-learning content management services to Global 2000 organizations. Using a revolutionary, flexible technology and exceptional design services, Avaltus converts large libraries of corporate training assets to e-learning and then manages the converted content at the speed of change. An Avaltus conversion project "future proofs" enterprise training assets by enabling radically flexible modifications and enhancements to e-learning over the multi-year life of knowledge content. Avaltus-converted courseware is interoperable with most commercial learning management systems via open standards, and all Avaltus e-learning content is stored via open XML, allowing a business's e-learning content to be freed of all proprietary formats and "portable" across any XML-capable technology.

Avaltus clients include Chubb Computer Services, Precision Response Corporation, the National Restaurant Association, Hilton Hotels Corporation, Fleming Companies, Inc., Royal Ahold NV, and the US Department of Defense. Avaltus has offices in Cedar Knolls, New Jersey and Salt Lake City, Utah. It can be reached by telephone at 973-326-8989, by e-mail at info@avaltus.comor on the Web at www.avaltus.com.