Company: Toshiba America Business Solutions, Inc., Irvine, California
Company Description: Toshiba America Business Solutions Inc. manages product planning, marketing, sales, service support and distribution of copiers, facsimiles, multifunction printing products, network controllers, and toner products throughout the United States, Mexico, Latin America, and the Caribbean. TABS has been named 'Copier Manufacturer of the Year' six times by the Marketing Research Consultants.
Nomination Category: Individual Awards Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Best Sales Trainer

Nomination Title: Anthony V. Codianni for Best Sales Trainer'

   1. Tell the story about what this nominee achieved in the past year (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

In September 2005, Toshiba America Business Solutions, Inc. (TABS) acquired several office equipment dealerships based in Latin America.  As a result, TABS established operations in six Central and South American countries:  Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. 

Anthony Codianni, Director of Education and Development for TABS, was tasked with the challenge of leveraging his existing Special Weekly Acquisition Training (S.W.A.T.) sales training program, originally designed for training the company's wholly-owned U.S. dealers, and making it functional and effective for training TABS' new Latin America-based employees.  S.W.A.T. is a highly focused training program for TABS' newly acquired dealers that will begin selling Toshiba products exclusively.  The mobile program delivers 'Training in a Box' units that travel with the TABS training team, consisting of:
- Laptop computers
- A wireless network
- An LCD projector
- S.W.A.T. Participant Materials
- S.W.A.T. Manager Materials

Codianni faced several challenges in training these new, Spanish-speaking dealer employees, including:
- Language barriers;
- Overcoming IT obstacles presented by using unfamiliar networks in foreign countries with sporadic Internet access;
- Making a positive first impression to prevent a potential loss of salespeople.

Codianni began by converting all S.W.A.T. training materials into a Spanish-language format, with the entire conversion process complete in just over two months, and the first training session occurring only six weeks post-acquisition.  In addition, while the U.S. version of S.W.A.T. includes live e-learnings, Codianni had to archive and translate these online training sessions due to the time differences between the U.S. and Latin America. 
Another obstacle Codianni faced was setting up the wireless network the training team delivered for use during the on-site training sessions.  This was challenging because of the differences in Internet connections and electricity in Latin America.  Because TABS didn't want to burden the dealers' IT staff, Codianni assigned two trainers to participate in each training session.  The trainer buddy system allowed one trainer to focus solely on IT issues and setting up this independent, self-sustaining network, while the other trainer concentrated on preparing for the training sessions and working with the dealer.  Thus the entire S.W.A.T. program remained self-contained, without requiring time or resources from the dealer, nor with interruptions during training. 

Lastly, both an English-speaking TABS trainer and a Spanish-speaking translator were assigned to lead the on-site training sessions.  This ensured that TABS' experienced sales trainers led the sessions, with translation for sales reps who didn't speak English.

As a result of Codianni's quick response to redesigning and delivering S.W.A.T. for a Latin American audience, 61 dealer sales representatives were trained using S.W.A.T. in a period of three months in 2005.  To date, 59 of these S.W.A.T. trained reps (97%) are still employed by TABS.  This represents a 22% higher retention rate over international dealers who haven't attended S.W.A.T. training.

Additionally, prior to S.W.A.T., the acquired dealerships accounted for an average of only 22.64% of TABS' total international copier purchases.  After S.W.A.T., these dealerships represented 57.26% of TABS' total international copier purchases, an increase of nearly 35%.

   2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, http://www.youraddress.com:

   3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about this nominee:

As Director of Education and Development for TABS since 1984, Anthony V. Codianni has designed, established and expanded the company's corporate university.  He's received countless industry awards for his innovative training programs, including the 1990 Toshiba Overseas Management Training Award, BTA's Best Training Award six times over, and a 2004 and 2005 American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) BEST Award.

Prior to TABS, Codianni spent eight years as an educator and high school principal in New York City, and 10 years as a professor of education at several universities.  He holds education degrees from Brooklyn College and Indiana University.