EDITORIAL - Training deficits must be tackled

Ingram Micro now has a fully functioning Telebusiness Centre, officially opened this week. As managing directorSandy Scott said, this is Ingram's reponse to the changing distribution market. Competition is stiffer than ever and customers' expectations are not being satisfied. Ingram has been honest about its shortcomings recently and many have been surprised by this, and by Ingram's dramatic answer to them - the massive change in the organisation's focus and the setting up of one of the UK's most sophisticated telesales operations.

But will it deliver the extra service that Ingram customers and suppliers need? It certainly has the potential.

One of the most interesting innovations is a permanent training team on the business floor. This commitment to training may make the real difference.

It is fundamentally different to the way the channel has historically done business, and judging by how C2000 has developed its telesales operation, training will be the making or breaking of the company.

Breaking new ground was this summer's annual Comdef Reseller Forum included a fascinating think tank subject - the results of which have just been published. The panel examines how businesses would develop over the next year. It gives a snapshot of what resellers were thinking and it will be interesting to see if the views change in the New Year.

Not surprisingly, the principal limitation on the channel's ability to grow appears to be a lack of properly trained staff. This has not improved during the year and has brought many managers to a state that can only be described as despair. The situation is worsened when trained staff disappear to rivals, in what one participant described as the 'dash for cash'.

Despite the many problems identified, the general view was still one of business growth and development.

Most managers were planning the growth of their businesses - a good sign when so much of UK industry is planning for recession by cutting back. But, there are still tears in the fabric of the business plans.

When asked if they had identified the key skills and knowledge base for their businesses, there was, 'a rather bemused response, as if to say, "Why would we do that?"' The Comdef report suggests that managers want someone else to solve the problems rather than accept responsibility themselves.

And the skills crisis is more than a 'dash for cash'. Often, key staff will walk out not because of money - although some will - but because the competition that lures them away offers better training, staffing ratios and culture.

Acompany's culture is highlighted in the section of the report that turns its spotlight on the conflict between sales and technical support staff. Credence can be found for the opinion that there is 'something biologically inherent in the causes of this conflict. For some participants it was like two tribes going to war, both inventing hostile stereotypes before they go into battle.'

This conflict can easily escalate, with companies creating exclusive sales and technical cultures, and recruiting vastly different personalities to fill these roles, rather than looking at how all new recruits will fit into the organisation's overriding culture.

The importance of company culture was emphasised. Most participants said, out of everything to take into the year 2000, they would like to take their staff, with their skills and knowledge base intact.

But they will not hang onto skilled staff if they keep sales and technical staff in separate, artificial boxes, letting them out now and then to war on each other.

As Ingram has discovered, company focus and culture goes hand in hand.