Play with others - it pays

One of the fascinating things about being in business is learning about other people's businesses. The best approach to a service-based enterprise is to fit your service around your client's needs, and those vary based on that client's own industry. I don't need to be an expert in your field to make my service work better in your environment -- but the more you clue me in to the nuances of it, the better I will be able to foresee problems and opportunities as it relates to delivering my service to you.

To me, this is one of the things that makes "farming that out" a very viable and exciting idea. Sure, there are things you will always prefer to do yourself, to handle in-house, but if Joe's Shipping can handle your deliveries better, cheaper and with more accurate record-keeping than you or your people can -- well, by all means, Joe is the way to go. If Martha's Marketing can bring in additional leads that your sales force couldn't (or bring you qualified leads that your sales force can then close more quickly), well, you should look at the profitability of working with Martha. And if Joe and Martha are smart, they will look at how your business works so their service will be even better for you.

When you focus on what your business does best, and your partners play to their strengths for you, everybody wins.

The Politics of Random

Industry, even when a passion, takes some get-down-to-it discipline and follow-through. However, in the training industry more than any other arena I have enjoyed, there is a whole dynamic of Randomness that is ingrained. One might not think that a class would be a random beast, and in fact, I contend that many things can be done to mitigate that. But for many reasons, Randomness is a key factor to be dealt with in the planning, orchestration and implementation of training. Working on a fluctuating training schedule at this very moment calls these things to mind with a special touch of poignancy.

This is especially true of IT or technical training. Take for example what might seem the simplest element: courseware. Books must usually be ordered, but preferably not until a final number has been set so as to minimize excess overhead costs and avoid having an overstock on books which may become obsolete. (This means waiting often till much closer to the "last minute" for that "last head-count", and express shipping of the books, which costs more and opens the training organization up to the variability of the shipping gods.)

Of course, there is always the reality that computers can be finicky creatures of themselves, and with unknown users or network administrators changing settings, locking down security features, corrupting or removing software, and the chances the "Internet" may be down -- well, there is plenty of room for Randomness to rear its head on a technology level as well.

And the single most confounding Randomness issue often comes down to students themselves... Will those students who've registered for a class be able to actually show up? If they do not, or they attend only in part, it changes the dynamics and pace of the class... Often, a class may cancel simply because there were insufficient participants able to attend when the launch date arrives.

These factors and many others make for an industry wherein projects (AKA, classes) can receive substantial good-faith preparations but ultimately fall through. Entire daisy-chains of classes on the calendar can disappear. There is also an added element of "what-if" for those many classes that do go through on schedule.

Somehow in spite, and perhaps even a little bit because of the looming Randomness inherent in the training industry, it continues to be a place of powerful satisfaction and enjoyable learning. Training centers arise and service the educational needs of businesses and individuals all the time -- but behind the scenes, there are many people constantly pulling levers and making adjustments in deference to that unseen force, Randomness.