Training expenditure in the middle east during recession and slowdown

For the last one month I had been tracking almost all the leading corporations of the UAE like Emmar, Dubai world, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank, Dubai Islamic bank, Aldaar, Burj-Al-Arab,Emirates and Air Arabia to name a few, while training my students who represent different organizations across sectors.Recession is cascading all across and all the economies are affected in one way or the other.However, the smart corporations across the globe and few of them I observed here in UAE gave me the belief that you cannot invoke cost cutting in a very way especially when its related to brand building and employee development.In fact my reading said that the smart companies are continuing if not increasing their training related expenditure as they realize its only a matter of time after which things would return back to normalcy.Its that phase of the business cycle where you continue with the training and development plan which otherwise is cut short as preferance is given to other functional areas of management which are related with the departments considered to be the revenue spinners.
Smart companies therefore nurture and groom their soldiers(read employees) during the period of slowdown, so that they can make the right tactical moves by becoming battle ready, once the skies clear up in the economical landscape.

Customizing my training inputs in Dubai

Training corporate executives the subject "Managing Market" in November 2008, I realized the importance of localizing the training content, which compelled me to have a GLOCAL-Global inputs with a local touch.As the executives were working with leading companies from the UAE representing sectors like hospitality, real estate, travel and tourism, aviation, banks, financial services my approach of quoting examples of corporates from the UAE like Emmar, Tamweel, Emirates Airlines, Burj-Al-Arab, Jumeriya Hotels and Resorts, DFC,to name a along with the corporations from Abu Dhabi like Aldaar went a long way in making the trainees understand the concepts of Managing Markets.The response/queries emanating from the trainees mind were focussed around the sectors/companies and their impact due to the global financial crisis and thats precisely the reason why I retorted back by explaining their own organziations, the ones they are familiar with, with those of global giants like Microsoft, Cisco, Ford, Walmart,Carrefour, KLM to name a few.
Its important for a trainer to know the demographic, psychographic and behavioural status of his trainees and research around for information on the similar lines so that his academic delivery is in line with the trainees understanding.
I should admit it was a symbiotic process of knowledge enhancement as I learnt a lot along with my set of trainees. Moreover, I realized the importance of conducting a comprehensive study through primary and secondary in a new territory-be it a district, county, state or even nation as all are different in their own way, and a smart trainer can easily pick training threads from these experiences which would help in delivering need based training.

Nov. 08 Training Experiences in the Gulf

My training experience in Dubai while training professionals from different sectors representing different ethnicity made it very clear, that the trainers job to reinforce the training deliverables has to follow a blend of different training techniques and methodologies.My approach was quite simply, as I was training people from more than one nationalities, I tried to give illustrations from their own countries apart from the global examples and few from UAE-Dubai and UAE.In most of the cases english being the second language, the trainees found it difficult to handle the stuff, I therefore emphatized to the level of the poorest learner.My models of training here in the gulf during my last five visits has added to my training repertoire.

New Article Link on Recruitment

Source-http://www.iupindia.org/1108/hrm.asp?mag=http://www.iupindia.org/1108/hrm_sub.asp

COVER STORY
Recruitment Dynamics -- Manishankar Chakraborty
Recruitment has metamorphosed from a peripheral to a central activity of an organization. The emergence of knowledge sectors, coupled with novel HR practices, is giving a new shape and dimension to the recruitment landscape. Even though there has been lot of positive changes in this sphere, still there is a need for a holistic approach which can, to a large extent, bridge the rural-urban divide amongst the Indian populace. The article provides insights into the area of recruitment and a roadmap for the inclusive growth.
© 2008 The Icfai University Press. All Rights Reserved

Assessment-The backbone of any training program

Assessing your trainees after every training program is the most important aspect of any training department/trainer.Although there are ways and means to do it, the experience I had while mentoring senior and middle level executives from UAE, in the project (In Dubai,November-December 08)was completely different from my earlier exposures. Although I have trained and evaluated trainees(both students and professionals)in India, this new experience was an eye catching one especially when one considers the demographic diversity of the group of trainees.Most of them knew the concepts in and out,however, they lacked the theoritical understanding coupled with application.It was therefore pertinent for me to emphatize with my trainees and reach to their level of understanding.The assessment being related to their place of work, made it more interesting for me as they represented the best of the corporations from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).Interaction with the students while counseling them revealed many a secrets which allowed me to make those last minute changes so that my trainees benefit from my effort.I would candidly admit that I learnt a lot in this fifth experience in the gulf, and like my four visits to the gulf, this too had bagful of takeways for me as management trainer and consultant.

My latest Article Link on Handling Recession/Slowdown

http://www.iupindia.org/1108/gc.asp?mag=http://www.iupindia.org/1108/gc_sub.asp

Gulf Experiences in November-December 08

Its indeed an enriching experience to mentor, counsel and train the trainees working in various leading organisations of the gulf and pursuing their higher professional diploma from the Cambridge International Examination,UK.Students coming from different nationalities from across the Gulf, South Asia,Europe,having different backgrounds from diverse sectors really challenges your capability as assessment advisor.They need to be explained the nuances of submission pertaining to the cambridge standards and more important identify the missing gaps as far as domain knowledge, their understanding, application and presentation is concerned.Its indeed the real challenge for your truly to bring out the latent potential of all the trainees, while reinforcing the domain know-how as and when required.To add to that my experience in managing my team of experienced subject matter experts in this project is really a dream experience for any trainer who would like to learn the trade secrets of a successful trainer and training administrator at one go.Indeed I should confess my past experiences while imparting management and soft skills training to management post graduates and working professionals coupled with my Indian and gulf experiences in consultancy went a long way in making me understand the need of the trainees from middle east.There are various subtle and major differences I noticed and learnt while comparing my trainees in the gulf with that of the Indian subcontinent.These learnings I am sure would make me a better trainer with every passing day as diversity challenges your capabilities and more the variations, more would be the take-aways for a learner like me.