A new focus
I've noticed that, on one hand, the work we have been doing with clients has been very broad; ranging from recruitment profiling to management development to coaching to team building to consulting to writing to... lots of other things.
On the other hand, I'm starting to see how these all tie together in a way that I do believe no-one else in the industry is seeing.
Big training providers get big by having lots of trainers. Other big companies outsource HR services such as payroll.
But nobody in the people development industry is approaching the whole end to end employee life cycle as an integrated service.
My back ground is in telecoms & IT, where there are different types of supplier. You can buy cheap commodity products from distributors who dump boxes on your doorstep and run away. You can buy solutions from systems integrators who take all those boxes and get them to work together. Finally, you can buy a managed service or outsource the whole thing so that you don't have to buy any boxes at all.
The people development industry, right now, has some disjointed managed services such as LMSs, payroll systems etc. but for the most part is made up of 'hit and run' trainers - both independents and big providers - who want to sell components and don't care if those components integrate into the whole.
If you go to a low end IT distributor and ask for a component, they will supply what you ask for. If it doesn't do what you want it to do, it's your problem. Do you recognise the parallel with commodity training suppliers? If you ordered the wrong part for your PC, it's your fault for not checking. If the course doesn't change behaviour, you must have specified it incorrectly. If the training delivers no business benefit, the trainers did what they were asked to do.
It's not good enough.
An integrator understands your business problem and designs and end to end solution to it.
That's what we do. We understand business aspirations and design and delivery integrated people solutions. Not just training, or L&D, but the whole thing.
Right from the moment you attract a potential employee to the moment they leave the business. And everything in between, seamlessly integrated so that it all works properly and does what you expected it to do - deliver the best people and focus them on your business objectives.
So people who get your IT components to work together seamlessly are 'systems integrators'. What are we? 'people integrators'? I'm not sure. In a sense we are ensuring that the skills and behaviours of people align with the business, from before recruitment throughout the entire life cycle.
I guess that once everyone else starts to copy us again, we'll think of something to call it.
On the other hand, I'm starting to see how these all tie together in a way that I do believe no-one else in the industry is seeing.
Big training providers get big by having lots of trainers. Other big companies outsource HR services such as payroll.
But nobody in the people development industry is approaching the whole end to end employee life cycle as an integrated service.
My back ground is in telecoms & IT, where there are different types of supplier. You can buy cheap commodity products from distributors who dump boxes on your doorstep and run away. You can buy solutions from systems integrators who take all those boxes and get them to work together. Finally, you can buy a managed service or outsource the whole thing so that you don't have to buy any boxes at all.
The people development industry, right now, has some disjointed managed services such as LMSs, payroll systems etc. but for the most part is made up of 'hit and run' trainers - both independents and big providers - who want to sell components and don't care if those components integrate into the whole.
If you go to a low end IT distributor and ask for a component, they will supply what you ask for. If it doesn't do what you want it to do, it's your problem. Do you recognise the parallel with commodity training suppliers? If you ordered the wrong part for your PC, it's your fault for not checking. If the course doesn't change behaviour, you must have specified it incorrectly. If the training delivers no business benefit, the trainers did what they were asked to do.
It's not good enough.
An integrator understands your business problem and designs and end to end solution to it.
That's what we do. We understand business aspirations and design and delivery integrated people solutions. Not just training, or L&D, but the whole thing.
Right from the moment you attract a potential employee to the moment they leave the business. And everything in between, seamlessly integrated so that it all works properly and does what you expected it to do - deliver the best people and focus them on your business objectives.
So people who get your IT components to work together seamlessly are 'systems integrators'. What are we? 'people integrators'? I'm not sure. In a sense we are ensuring that the skills and behaviours of people align with the business, from before recruitment throughout the entire life cycle.
I guess that once everyone else starts to copy us again, we'll think of something to call it.
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