This is a guest post from my colleague Richard Rose
Driving me up the wall!
Due to the apparent increase in poor driving I have witnessed over the last few years I have come to the conclusion that there could be two types of driving instructor out there. Those who merely concentrate on getting their pupils through the test and those who not only get their pupils through the test but leave them with a proper understanding of road awareness and risk management
The former could be said to fall into the “pile ‘em high, sell ‘em cheap” bracket where they might fill their vehicle with three pupils for an hour-long lesson each paying half the price of a regular session, thereby providing them with only twenty minutes experience at the wheel. Thus the instructor gets 50% more revenue and the pupils get 66% less experience, which means they actually end up paying 50% more for their time behind the wheel! Whereas the latter type of instructor might seem more expensive but the pupils get a full hour at the wheel coupled with quality tuition.
I was contemplating this the other day and asked myself the question “would I put my daughter’s life in the hands of the former because I could save some money or would I apparently pay a bit more to try to minimise any future harm that could befall her whilst out on the road?”...of course the answer was simple!
So...taking this analogy further, why would an organization, or even an individual, employ the services of a ‘rock bottom’ priced project/programme management training provider when they put 25 or more delegates in a classroom and then train them to pass a professional exam without leaving the delegates with the where-with-all to embed their new-learned practices back in the workplace? Surely the requirement of an organization is that it has appropriately skilled project and programme resources coupled with the ability to use their skills in any situation? This leaves me with a number of views:
· The price is NOT always right!
· You only get what you pay for (as my late father-in-law was fond of quoting when cheap things failed to function!)
· A commodity CAN be differentiated – if the accompanying service is outstanding
· Why court disaster when you could do so much better?
Therefore I say to you...neither endanger your loved-ones by going cheap on driving instruction nor endanger the delivery of your organization’s strategy by going cheap on your training provider! I know the recession is biting hard but we will only pull ourselves out quicker by having staff that are properly equipped for the future.
Richard, I can only totally agree!