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<p> <b> Maybe This Time Your Training or E-Learning Business
<u>Isn't</u> Coming Back!</b></p>
<p>Sorry to alarm you. But what you are about to read may be
the wake-up call you really need. Especially if you're expecting
your ailing training or e-learning business to bounce up off
the floor like an action hero once the current economic difficulties
are over.</p>
<p>It ain't necessarily so.</p>
<p>Tailfins, lindy dancing, green stamps, timeshares - they've
all had their day. And now that day is going, or gone - absent
nostalgic "retro" initiatives like the Volkswagen
"New Beetle."</p>
<p>Transactional analysis, in-basket exercises, cheesecake sales
videos, computer literacy - many training topics have had
their day, too. And in the unsentimental world of corporate
purchase authorities, all the nostalgia in the world isn't
going to bring them back.</p>
<p>Could time be running out for your training offerings? Following
are four ways that formerly popular course offerings can slip
into oblivion. </p>
<p><b>1. Change in Custody</b></p>
<p>Sometimes training courses are such a good idea that clients
adopt them as their own. </p>
<p>This is especially a risk when the topic reflects on a company's
culture and represents a significant litigation exposure.
Examples include sexual harassment training, diversity training
and values training. </p>
<p>Many of these topics got their start as off-the-shelf courseware.
But the only way to stay in the game today is in a consulting
and custom development role - which may well pit you against
better positioned HR consulting firms.</p>
<p>Loss of custody is also a risk when you offer staples like
supervision and basic selling skills that customers incorporate
as mainstays in their HRD curriculum. After many years of
paying a license fee for the same old content, there's a good
chance they'll cut you out by concocting their own version.</p>
<p>Copyright infringement? Tough to prove. Especially if your
content consists of common sense platitudes and originated
when Nixon was president.</p>
<p>Better to obsolete your content before customers expropriate
it. Invest in original research and stay on the cutting edge
of today's business issues. Improve your instructional design
and delivery, too - but don't expect you can disguise warmed
over content with high tech bells and whistles.</p>
<p><b>2. Overexposure</b></p>
<p>Overexposure happens when demand for a training topic crashes,
not because it's obsolete or faddish, but because expectations
got way out of hand.</p>
<p>A shining example is Quality Training. </p>
<p>Interest in Total Quality Management and "continuous
process improvement" built to a frenzy a few years back.
Even beauty parlors and gas stations were getting into the
six sigma, zero defects game.</p>
<p>The result was a sudden bonanza for training companies with
a quality offering -- followed by an equally precipitous and
ruinous slump.</p>
<p>Other worthy training topics that have been through a period
of overexposure include customer service, negotiating, problem
solving/decisionmaking, time management and communications
skills. Current candidates include team building, project
management and possibly 360 assessment.</p>
<p>Overexposure can happen to training delivery methodologies
as well. Years ago it was "programmed instruction."
More recently it's been "e-learning." </p>
<p>No doubt you're aware that many e-learning companies have
recently run into a revenue slump. Why? Not because there's
anything fundamentally wrong with e-learning - and not because
e-learning is a fad that's going to go away. The problem is
simply that e-learning is not the be-all, end-all solution
to every training problem that the media pundits and "thought
leaders" made it out to be.</p>
<p>So how can you protect yourself from falling victim to an
overexposure trap?</p>
<p>a) If a segment takes off beyond any reason, and you're not
already part of it - don't be in any hurry to jump in. </p>
<p>b) Avoid over-extending your distribution to fringe markets
and prospects who are motivated by a need to climb on the
bandwagon rather than by genuine need. Once the frenzy is
over they will figure out that you have nothing to offer them.
</p>
<p>c) When an overexposed topic comes down to earth, you want
to be one of the survivors. One way to make certain of this
is to dedicate yourself to being the best in your field.</p>
<p>d) Don't get yourself panicked by the industry analysts and
sages. They trade on hyping the "next big thing"
and scaring folks into spending big bucks on conference attendance
and consulting fees. When things fall apart, they'll tell
you they "saw it coming."</p>
<p><b>3. Loss of Relevancy</b></p>
<p>Perhaps the core of your business is a training premise whose
time is past. This shouldn't be hard to figure out.</p>
<p>Is your field attracting new entrants? Are your competitors
doing reasonably well? Are you winning new top drawer clients?
If not, you could be looking at an end game called "Last
Man Standing."</p>
<p>One reason training business opportunities dry up for good
is a simple crash in demand. </p>
<p>Remember computer literacy training? Once computers got easier
to use and consumers became more computer-savvy, this business
dried up and went away.</p>
<p>We are now looking at the same phenomenon with desktop applications
training. Why? The people who come into the workforce today
learn how to use Word and Excl and PowerPoint in school. Plus
free PC tutorials now come with many new home computers. </p>
<p>C++, Linux, Java - even cutting edge technical professional
topics can become commonplace and loose market viability.
</p>
<p>If technology training companies don't stay ahead of the
curve, they're doomed to wind up in commodity land. </p>
<p>Another downfall of a few training companies every year are
"Training Fads" - ideas that seemed to offer the
promise of value, but never really delivered. </p>
<p>Remember "Zero Based Budgeting." Here today, gone
tomorrow.</p>
<p>How about sensitivity training, career planning workshops,
assertiveness training, adventure training (ropes courses),
"styles" training (and all of the other behavioral
science gobbledygook courses), management by objectives, transactional
analysis training, body language training and stress management
training. </p>
<p>If you're in one or another of these segments chances are
your business is not going to bounce back from the current
period of economic distress. </p>
<p>And here are some currently popular topics that may be candidates
for the dustbin of tomorrow: entrepreneurship, self-directed
work teams, empowerment, performance management, change management,
innovation and creativity. </p>
<p>And what are the survival prospects of the many training
firms that are the offspring of a trendy best-selling author?
Well, it all depends how well your "new truths"
hold up in terms of enduring customer needs.</p>
<p>Consider Dale Carnegie. He wrote his best seller 'How to
Win Friends and Influence People" in 1936. His ideas
survive just fine today because they help people overcome
shyness and fear of speaking in public. This would appear
to be a timeless need.</p>
<p>In conclusion, don't be despondent if your training business
has taken a hit from the current economic slump. Many high
potential training segments loose steam temporarily during
an economic downturn.</p>
<p>However, a slumping economy can also disguise fundamental
weaknesses in your business and provide you with an excuse
not to deal with them. Like every industry, training has its
growing edge. Be sure you're on it.<br>
</p>
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