Monday, 23 February 2009

Tom Peters Cures Recession

Tom Peters on his own website quotes

"It" (the current economic mess) is 100% about psychology. Fixes must first and second and third and fourth be directly aimed at our inherent irrationality—times ten in periods of high stress, and at least as true of the "bestest and brightest" as of the rest of us.

Tom Peters posted this on 11 February 2009.

We hope to see Tom Peters in the UK in June in a series of high profile Seminars run by Inspirational Seminars, who will shortly announce details. This type of event is likely to be advertised on their sister web site at http://www.inspirational-speakers.org

Wednesday, 11 February 2009

How Big is Africa

I was doing some research into the size of the African continent and I came across this amazing map from the Times Atlas

Tuesday, 11 November 2008

Expensive Business Training Needs to be Good, but Good Training Needn’t be Expensive

A new type of training seminar offers the high quality companies are used to but at a truly affordable price. Inspirational Seminars Ltd is using the medium of seminars, which they have branded ‘Quick & Dirty!’ Instead of asking companies to book their staff on a 2 or 3 day programme, they have encapsulated the ‘real meat’ of these programmes in seminars just 3 hours long.

Training staff and management in the ‘Soft-Skills’ is seen as an investment in people however when the economic outlook is bleak, what was previously thought of as an investment becomes seen as a cost. But how can a company be fit to weather the storm if for example they stop motivating their sales people and line managers with good training? Companies shouldn’t be as much concerned about the economic outlook, as much as they should be on the look-out for good training that will continue to build their business.

Inspirational Seminars is a training company that is offering companies a new way to continue development of their staff but at a very affordable price. The ‘Quick & Dirty!’ concept allows organisations to continue with the essence of vital training whist allowing them breathing space to recover. When the budget allows, more in depth face to face training can take place using the same world class trainers and course writers to maintain continuity.

In recent years, the training industry has seen quite a lot of seminars that are really only vehicles to sell companies and individuals longer and more expensive courses; they contain very little in the form of usable information. The ‘Quick & Dirty!’ seminars offer people a stream of ideas during the 3 hours that people can go away and use immediately. These seminars will be rolled out over the UK and Europe after a series of pilot schemes starting in Oxfordshire.

John Burke, a director of Inspirational Seminars Ltd says; ‘the benefits to companies who take advantage of this type of training is that they get high quality training with low investment, they do not lose people from the office for more than half a day and there are no hotel costs involved. But perhaps one of the most important benefits is that both the material and delivery are of the highest quality because the seminars are run by very experienced, world-class trainers of international acclaim. Another benefit that companies find is that this type of training fills a gap until they are in a situation whereby they can undertake more in-depth training’.

He continues, ‘since people are the ‘life-blood’ of any company it is of course important for companies to continue the learning and development of people within the organisation. Most HR Departments are inundated with information from training companies and so the process of making decisions as to which company to use can be very much like a minefield these days. What companies should bear in mind is this: although expensive training needs to be good, good training needn’t be expensive’.

For additional information on the availability of these seminars, please send your email to info@inspirational-seminars.com or visit http://www.inspirational-seminars.com and visit the ‘Quick & Dirty!’ Seminar text at the top right hand side.


About Inspirational Seminars Ltd

Inspirational Seminars (ISL) is a consortium of trainers who have all worked with well established training companies over the last 20 years. These are people who have worked closely with each other and have now come together to provide unsurpassed quality training programmes to companies in the UK and Europe. Some of their trainers are psychologists, some are NLP Practitioners and all have personal experience in every subject in which they train.

Inspirational Seminars’ team of dedicated professionals aim to bring to companies first class, world-class results-oriented ideas that will improve the performance of individuals thus improving the overall performance of a client company. This is done with well developed and established methodologies and close working relationships with customers.

Inspirational Seminars offers Public Courses and Seminars throughout the UK and parts of Europe covering a wide range of sales, management and personal development. And because these programmes can be adapted for individual customer needs it means ISL can provide around 80% of most companies development requirements.

Thursday, 6 November 2008

Should we Bail Out the Banks or Have a Recession?

As the Banks sit there wringing their hands in anguish at the problems they are in, let's step back to see what they are actually causing in the rest of the economy.

First we have to understand about the "paradox of thrift", the concept introduced by that great British economist John Maynard Keynes, who has been very much misrepresented over the years. This concept states that if we all start saving too much, then we are not spending. This will then causes a slow down in the economy as goods and services are not being purchased in the same volumes.

Now lets consider what the banks are doing right now in their misguided attempts to correct the real problems that they have caused and with their desperate need for refinancing from Governments and Sovereign Wealth Funds. Yes, they are taking money out of the production cycle for debt re-financing. And as they are reducing the amount of lending, they are deflating global economies.

Are they mad? They are only concerned with their own survival, but it seems at the expense of the rest of the economy. Because they have got everybody's bank accounts online they are now indispensable/compulsory [just try to do without one, your tax office will go ape]. Worst luck. We need an alternative to bank accounts. An alternative that will not try and gear up your money to fund their profits and then pocket your cash when they screw up. How else can we interpret their actions.

At best a bank is only a marginal business. How can it possibly make money from holding our money? They do it by using our money for their own gain. But when their assumptions and their miscalculations mean that they have lost our money, its only natural that we the customers are going to feel a bit angry. No wonder there are "runs on the bank". No bank can survive a loss of confidence in the system. That's why we have problems now - we have lost confidence in "the system".

The only solution is to re-build that confidence, hence massive inter-governmental support, or to come up with alternatives. Well Governments are doing their bit but....

So lets as responsible business folk with creative minds come up with some alternatives to the traditional banks.

First is the internet concept of ZORPA

Next is anybody's best guess. Please lets come up with some solutions.

Over to you.


John Burke, Ecadamist, and International Worrier!