Why do I need a banker?

I am sick of politics. I am tired of politicians posturing. I am confused at living as the definition of middle class.

What is middle class? It is like the middle child, not as treasured as the first of the family, and not the last as the eternal baby that is coddled, but the one who has to carve out a niche to be brighter than the first and stronger than the last. It is the one that is independent and often is defined by the word Middle. It is the "middle pip".

Middle Class is the small business owner, the one person service operation, the small manufacturing company, the down- the-road store owner. Many of these owners employ a number of people, but nearly always are dependent on the banking system, even if they have a healthy cash flow.

Middle Class is defined as the core of the economy, the backbone of the country, the salt of the earth, steady in their resolve to sustain their families in the American dream - a home and a full belly and send your children to college.

Small business is the key in politics. This is where promises are made and broken. This is where the bankers prowl and offer you the world, but give nothing. This is where it is the hardest to live and work because it is the biggest portion of the country.

Being a small business owner is very difficult. Usually one is happy to keep going at a pace that is comfortable, that you can afford, but there are times that one needs to borrow capital from a bank for expansion, short term loans or bridging finance.

Yeah, right.

You try borrowing anything from the banks today.

I sold a shipment of goods to a large reputable company, for which they gave me a Purchase Order with their payment terms that were net 30 days. I paid my manufacturer for half the order, the balance to be paid when the goods were delivered. I had the balance of the money tied up in an Annuity - yes, my own money sitting there and earning some interest!

When it came time to pay for the balance of the goods, I went to my company bankers with whom I have banked for many years, and asked if I could get bridging finance by giving the Annuity as collateral. You guessed the answer. No.

So I went to my personal bankers, who had set up the Annuity in the first place, and asked to borrow against the annuity for 45 days as a bridging loan. No. Really???

So I had to cash in the policy, lost $1800 on the deal (more than five times the interest that would have been paid for 45 days with bridging finance) and waited for the creditor to pay so that I could put the money back again. In my savings.

Probably should put it under the mattress and let it work for me when I need it to, get the profit, and then put it back under the mattress!

What on earth do I need a banker for? Can you recommend a good mattress?

Lanky Levy is the author of "Notes from the Gurus", internet marketing 101 as well as "Sudden Spouse Death"

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I repeatedly get to read that the organizations today are very keen on being tagged as a "learning organization" and that they are spending and still willing to spend exorbitant amounts on training and developing its' employees. But, is it so in reality?

This is what a friend told me about the state of so-called training and development section of the HR department in her company. I just couldn't believe when she told me that the training programs in her company are conducted only for the sake of filling the mandatory man-hours and when I asked her as to what purpose do these "mandatory man-hours" serve. She was prompt in saying that they need those hours to clear the audit. Isn't this just appalling? She went on to say that neither the employees nor the management sound enthusiastic about the training activities in the organization. In fact the managers have to be coerced to nominate the employees for a particular training program and the employees too need to be coerced to participate in it.

If you think the scenario I just related is restricted to that organization alone, then you are mistaken. This is not the question of the practice in that organization alone, in fact this is what we get to see in most of the organizations, especially in the small and mid-sized companies.

What do you think should be the intent behind exposing employees to training and development activities in the organization? Is it not to improve the employability of the employees in terms of enhanced knowledge and skills? Is it not so that the employees can put to use the newly acquired knowledge and skills to enhance their contributions to the tasks at hand? Is it not to see to it that the organization benefits in terms of increased productivity and profits? Is it ultimately not for the benefit of the individuals and the organizations? There is no doubt in the fact that both employees and the management (organization) look forward to welcoming the benefits associated with training, with open arms, but usually ignore the efforts needed to aspire the benefits.

See if you can relate to any of the below statements

The same kind of training is provided to all the employees. They view their training programs as 'should be applicable to all the employees in the organization'. Training is simply thrust about the individuals without proper needs analysis being carried out. Without this, how will the managers and the HR of the organization be able to recognize tha gap which exists between what is being provided and what is being expected? When you fail to acknowledge the initial narrow gap, it just widens and continues to widen.
Most of the organizations expect the ROI (return on investment) to be quick and high. They just do not have the patience and perseverance to give it the time it takes to bear fruit. When the results are not quick and magical as expected, the training programs are seen as wasteful extravaganza.
Also, it is of utmost importance to evaluate the effectiveness of a training program. It is not even evaluated as to whether the employees have been putting the knowledge and skills acquired in their training to make their work more effective and productive. For them imparting training ends with collecting the feedback forms from the participants and it is not exaggeration to say that the feedback forms in most of the cases are not appropriately designed to capture the true and required information.
Ideas for effective training programs should stem from performance appraisal. Forget about relating performance appraisal with training programs, we do not even assign significant importance to performance appraisal either.

Attitude change should be brought in the employees too. Its' perhaps the culture of the organization which creeps into the employees' attitude too. They do not take the training and development sessions seriously and instead view them as an opportunity to take a break from their work. In my opinion with such a culture and attitude towards training persisting in the organization, the real motive of training and development gets killed even before the movie starts. Of what use are such sessions which do not add value neither to the employees' skills nor to the organization?

With organizations becoming more cost cutting oriented training and development section is the one which faces the maximum brunt in the form of reduced budgets towards delivering training programs.

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