A recent report on Talent Facts 2009 issued by Bersin and Associates indicate that in the USA Training Spend dropped from $ 56 Billion 2008 to $ 48 Bill 2009- (14%). The number of training professionals per 1000 employees have also dropped from 7 to 6.2. While the reasons seem obvious it appears that some major developments are taking place. The per participant spent has dropped from just above $1000 in 2008 to about $750 (approx). It is difficult to imagine that people development would receive such a back seat. The management is getting more demanding is evident for every dollar spent,and this forebodes well. Linkage to performance is a priority. In India, we have accepted that training and education are essential for success. Budgets are very rarely denied. As businesses, we can draw a close parallel with our education system - which has a hierarchy of top 10% quality and the remaining 90% quantity. Most companies are very happy to impart training . Has it shaped our porfessionals better? Those who have come out of quality institutions have excelled anyway. What about the ones who come from the remaining 90% ? A study conducted by Wharton had indicated that Indian Managers scored 2.65 in a scale of 5 (the least among developed and developing country professionals). The corporate training is still a ritual which ties in well with our culture of knowledge and ascription. Applying it as a skill remains to be a challenge. Here lies the opportunity to develop systems which help in skill development as opposed to knowledge enhancement only to drive performance . With higher focus and demands on returns , I am sure we can pro-actively accelerate in this curve as we have demonstrated well in IT. This calls for applying thought to what we do and how we do to implement what we must do. Given our historic opportunity we cannot afford to straddle all hope on the top 10% world class Indian leaders, we need to widen this base. We can achieve this by being focussed on Performance.
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