TRAVAILS OF A TRAINING MANAGER
Ashwin Ashwin Kumar Kumar,, who had recent recently ly joined joined System System,, as a traini training ng manage manager, r, was feeling uneasy at the end of his first meeting with Pesu Shroff, the managing director of the company. company. Systems were a ten-year old old unit employing employing 300 people. It had a turnoer of !s. "# crore the preious year. $he company traded in seeral products % &oth domestic and imported. 'early (0 percent of its turnoer came from selling electronic component products which were assem&led locally from imports of semi )noc)ed % down )its. $he landed cost of its imports was a&out !s. *0 crore crore last last year. year. $he produc products ts had an assure assured d demand demand in the country country,, with with smuggled goods from $aiwan and Korea proiding whateer little competition there was. $he company had &een operating in a seller+s mar)et for years and, as a result, most of its actiities were production oriented rather than mar)et oriented.
arly during the current financial year, the oernment of India had announced, as a part of its economic li&eraliation strategy, seeral policy measures which made imports costlier. All imports had to &e financed &y e/ports % there were restrictions on margin money and interest rates for wor)ing capital had shot up at one stro)e. ith little e/port income in its account, Systems had no choice &ut to discontinue importing SK1 )its.
$he company management had three option &efore it. 2irst, to &uild up its domestic trading actiity rapidly second, to assem&le at least a few of the component products from raw materials sourced locally and third, pursue after-sales serice aggressiely &oth to generate reenue in the short run and to esta&lish an enduring client-&ase for the company+s products in the long run.
Inaria&ly, this meant that the surial of Systems depended on how 4uic)ly it could train its people % &eginning from a handful of sales engineers % to &ecome mar)et % centred and customer % friendly fr iendly in their approach to &usiness.
5 $he days of easy reenue money are oer for us,6 Shroff had told Kumar, who
had a formal training in 7!1 and had &een an officer in the training cell of a multinational firm &efore signing up with Systems. 5 e hae to compete now in the mar)etplace and sell hard to &e a&le to secure orders. $imes are changing. e hae to change too. And that is where you come in. It will &e your responsi&ility, as the training manager, to ensure that people here ac4uire mar)eting s)ills,6 he said, adding, as a clincher, 52ran)ly, hae always felt that a salesman is &orn, not trained. I hae had no &elief in non-technical training. In fact, hae found no need so far for a training manager at Systems. 8ut I am prepared to do anything to get more sales.6
$hat punching was what had made Kumar uneasy. 8ut he decided to let it pass. 9er the ne/t few days, Kumar got &usy eoling specific training pac)ages for wor)ers, shop % floor superisors, administratie staff and senior functional e/ecuties and an intensie module for field salesman. 1eciding to start with the salesman first, he met the sales manager to as) him to depute *0 salesmen for a training session the ne/t day. $he sales manager was s)eptical and only half % heartedly consented to release people for the two % day training.
$he session was a disaster. 'o one showed any interest in the proceedings. In fact, one of the salesmen came up to him during the coffee &rea) and said, “You see, all this is a waste of time. Take the client for a drink and you get the sale. It is as simple as that. It has worked in the past and it will work in the future.” Kumar laughed it off &ut the message had &een deliered.
$he attendance for the second day session was thin. $his lac) of interest was again o&ious at the session for wor)ers ne/t day. $he wor)s manager who had originally agreed to the idea was ague a&out the a&sence of so many wor)ers at the training session. 5$hey are sic), I &eliee,6 he said, ma)ing no attempts to hide his feeling that to him to whole thing was a &ig jo)e.
Kumar had encountered such resistance in the company where he had wor)ed earlier. 7e also )new that his training capsule was ery effectie. 7e was aware
that training needs were uniersal for all companies and so were the training techni4ues which were also easily transfera&le from one set of wor)ing conditions to another and from one industry to another. 7e also )new that he had the aptitude and interest to &ecome a professional trainer.
8ut Kumar &egan to realie that he had made a few tactical errors in his particular case. 7e should hae perhaps as)ed Shroff to personally inaugurate the training session to gie the whole e/ercise an air of formality and, more importantly, of authority. 7e should hae perhaps started with the module for senior e/ecuties first.
5I must find a way out of this and &ring eeryone round. $here is simply no way I am going to accept failure. hateer damage there has &een must &e undone. I must do something,6 he said to himself.
What should he do? Answer:
Kumar should ma)e the training effectie, 7e was aware that training needs were uniersal for all companies and so were the training techni4ues which were also easily transfera&le from one set of wor)ing conditions to another and from one industry to another.
$he action on the following lines needs to &e initiated to ma)e training practices effectie. $raining process inoles seeral steps: ; 1efining organiational o&jecties and strategies ; Assessment of training needs ; sta&lishing training goals.
; 1eising the training programe ; Implementation of the programe and ; aluation of the results Seeral &arriers impede the effectieness of training and there are ways to remoe them. Kumar should follow the lines needed to initiate and ma)e training practices effectie. And once the training is done, he needs to ealuate
