the smart cut

the smart cut It’s about learning in corporations, it’s about the economic crisis and it’s not about denial.

Hello, my name is Bert. I’m into learning. And how are you? A bubble.

All around, I hear about this economic downturn triggered by the financial crisis.

Some say it is the valley we need to go through to arrive at the information age. Installation Deployment Irruption The Industrial Revolution Age of Steam and Railways Age of Steel, Electricity and Heavy Engineering Age of Oil, Automobiles and Mass Production Age of Information and Telecommunications Frenzy Synergy Maturity Panic 1797 Depression 1893 Crash 1929 (Dot.com Bubble) Period of Institutional Adjustment 1 2 3 4 5 Panic 1847 1771 1829 1875 1908 1971 1873 1920 1974 1829 Source: Perez, C., “ Technological Revolutions and Financial Capital ”, 2002 Crash

Formation of Mfg. industry

Repeal of Corn Laws opening trade

Standards on gauge, time

Catalog sales companies

Economies of scale

Urban development

Support for interventionism

Build-out of Interstate highways

IMF, World Bank, BIS

Some learning folks say they’ll sweat it out. Or that it doesn’t affect them. I’m employed by the government. I’m more safe than the economy of Iceland… Times are tough. Blah blah blah. Crisis or no crisis, most employees expect a pay rise next year.

Others say it’s the end of time as we know it. First off, be aware that the magnitude of the financial meltdown is almost beyond comprehension. This is more than fiscal irresponsibility in the highest reaches of American government and a chief executive who, when the people needed reassurance, announced that “this sucker may go down.” We are witnessing the final meltdown of the industrial economy. (Jay Cross) Read this: http://internettime.com/2008/11/15/taking-advantage-of-the-financial-crisis/ and http://www.slideshare.net/clives/change-and-uncertainty-the-making-or-the-breaking-of-corporate-learning-and-development-presentation In this situation, for learning and development professionals to be fussing too much about the needs of a new generation of learners would be like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. First let's deal with the iceberg. (Clive Shepherd)

We know this much from the past: training is among the first to get squeezed.

The cut will happen… Training or HR manager Financial manager (the company’s new crown prince) But surely our people are our biggest value. Talk business alignment, ROI and bottom line to me baby…

So it is up to us to make it a SMART cut.