How do you know if you are creating negative intellectual capital inside your organization?

Look for these tell-tale signs:

1. People are focused on internal company issues (politics, personalities and people) rather than external issues (markets, competition and customers).
2. There is a product-focus rather than a customer-focus: “How can we sell more of this service or product?” rather than, “Who are the best customers and what do they need?”
3. Your organization has silos or departmental boundaries that prevent things from happening smoothly and there is constant inter-departmental conflict.
4. Your “grapevine” is active and full of negative talk about people inside your company.

The fact is, if you are not investing in training and leadership development, you are decreasing your long-term value. Most organizations under-invest in the things that could help them most.

In the book Information Masters, author John McKean shows the typical costs versus ROI for major categories of all businesses. He proposes that companies (and firms) need to invest in the skills needed to become customer-focused organizations. The biggest determinant of a company’s success are the skills its people had in mastering information, communicating and driving change off that information.

The research showed that the return on investment (ROI) was the greatest on culture (20 percent), people (20 percent) and leadership (10 percent) for the smallest historical costs (culture 1 percent, people 2 percent, leadership 1 percent). 

What can you do to start growing your intellectual capital? Invest in the three areas that, according to McKean, offer the highest leverage:

1. People: Building the “information competencies“
2. Leadership: Today’s environment needs more leaders who can handle speed and complexity, and training is a way to build these skills and confidence.
3. Culture: Create a customer-focused environment with data-driven strategies. (Hint: Your leadership investment will also build the right culture.)

Here are the top five programs successful companies and firms we train at Business Learning Institute shows they are using these programs to build their companies customer-focused skills:

1. Taking the Helm in the Storm: Fresh Approaches to Leadership in Turbulent Times
2. Business at The Speed of Trust
3. Consultative Selling: Using Your Problem-Solving Skills to Promote Business Growth
4. Leadership and Generations: What Are They Thinking?
5. Situational Communication: How to Communicate with Diplomacy, Tact and Credibility

Start investing in your intellectual capital today by calling our customized training consultant, Pam Devine, at (888) 481-3500 or pam@bizlearning.net.

We would love to hear your stories. Can you point to ROI from leadership and training initiatives?