6 NOVEMBER 2008

I write to you during a particularly busy time in my schedule in response to an announcement of gloom from the CEO of Cisco Systems, and equally negative sentiment about the times from some of you.

At times like these, we all need to put a stop to “investing” in non-critical, depreciating assets and any excess / unnecessary expenditure. We need to focus on improving efficiency, on improving our service, and on increasing productivity.

Some see turmoil and crisis while I see opportunity. The “cleansing” process that the world is currently going through will eliminate the weak and, after the battle, reward the strong.

We are experiencing in our world today what the animal kingdom experiences every day; survival of the fittest and most adaptable.

• Some say to invest in property; but there has been a general decline in property prices globally
• Some say to invest in Gold & Platinum; but these resources have taken a pasting in recent months and still remain volatile
• Some say to invest in the JSE; but unless you have an unhealthy appetite for risk and rollercoaster rides this is not for you
• Some say to keep your cash reserves in the bank; nobody ever moved forward by keeping money in the bank

Organizations are understandably cutting budgets across the board; No more travel, no additional headcount, no additional infrastructure, no more expansion.

I say:

• Invest in something that will never depreciate
• Invest in something that will improve efficiency
• Invest in something that will increase productivity
• Invest in something that will reduce the cost of staff churn and contractor charges
• Invest in something that will gain you loyalty and credibility both with your staff and industry

Invest in a managed training program with Torque IT that will ensure that your staff has the skills to implement best practice solutions and to manage your client environments with increased efficiency and credibility. This in turn will promote loyalty and long term staff engagement.

When the storm passes, organizations that have been prudent with their expenditure and managed their businesses effectively but at the same time invested in their real assets, in their people and their skills, will be on top and those that have not will find themselves at the bottom, at best, regardless of where they were in the times of plenty.

My advice: Stick to your knitting, be conservative where you can, but always put your people and their skills first. Train, Train, Train and then Train some more. Those that do this will reap dividends that will make light of the current losses. Those that don’t will once again witness the power of hindsight firsthand but by then it will be too late.

• If productivity is important to your business
• If optimal performance and efficiency is an imperative
• If you need to reduce the cost of staff churn and contractor charges

Torque IT will customize a managed training programme that will ensure that your engineers have the skills to implement best practice solutions and to manage your client environments with increased efficiency and credibility which in turn will promote loyalty and long term staff engagement.

When employers ask, ‘What if I invest in training and certification for my employees and they leave?’ I always ask, ‘What if you don’t invest in their training and certification...and they stay?’

This applies to organizations and individuals alike. I hope that you read and implement this now. You should have done so long before the storm but it is still not too late.
I hope that your clients, and their clients, do the same and that we all look back fondly at the “speed bump” of 2008 / 2009 that was the demise of those who did not see the value in investing in the training and certification of their greatest assets.

The knees of the developed world are starting to buckle and many of those who have left South Africa for “greener pastures” are feeling the error of their ways.
Many of the common destinations are seeing a skills surplus and as a result salaries are plummeting while supply and demand is driving housing and living prices through the roof.

We live in a fantastic country where we are weathering the storm with remarkable grace. What’s more, you all work for an organization that is growing at an alarming rate but for the right reasons unlike the financial institutions that you read about in the press.

Together we will close 2008 having smashed almost all of our targets which were set long before the “sky started falling” and after our rest we will come back and smash them together again in 2009.

About Torque IT

Torque IT, a 66% black-owned business, is made up of 3 divisions viz, Torque Technical Training, Torque Career Campus, and Torque Education Resources. As a specialist in education, Torque IT provides high-level technical and user training through Torque Technical Training, one of the largest Cisco Learning Solutions Partner (CLSP) in the emerging markets worldwide.

Torque IT currently has branches in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, Durban, Nairobi (Kenya) and Luanda (Angola), and provides training in over 22 countries in Africa through the Torque Education Resources division. Torque Technical Training is also a Microsoft Gold Partner (Learning Solutions), an Authorised SUN Education Centre, a Novell Gold Training Partner, a VMWare Authorised Training Centre and a CompTIA Gold Partner.

Torque’s largest clientele concentration is 65-70% corporate, with blue chip clients in its top 20 including clients from verticals as disparate as the ICT sector, telecommunications, food & beverage and financial. Torque Career Campus provides customised training to school-leavers seeking skills in the ICT industry, with a specialist focus on Learnerships.

For more information contact:
Torque IT
Tshepiso Mojanaga
Tshepiso.Mojanaga@torque-it.com
011 602 9000