HALO (High Altitude Low Opening) skydiving is a technique used by special operations military units in order to covertly insert troops into strategic areas.  The soldier begins the process 25,000 to 35,000 feet above the Earth.  (S)he exits the aircraft and immediately begins to accelerate towards the ground.  Within 15 seconds, the jumper is traveling at speeds close to 200 miles per hour.  The soldier does not open a parachute to slow decent until (s)he is around 3,500 feet from the earth.  Once opened, the chute (and physics) begins to decelerate the rate that the person is falling; however, (s)he still impacts the surface traveling very fast.

I would imagine that there is a very critical time period beginning when the chute is deployed and ending when feet touch the ground.  During this time, the soldier must accomplish several things.  The jumper must do an immediate self-check for signs of decompression sickness, ensure that his/her orientation with surface directions is correct, quickly take stock of the battlefield, be aware of communication and orders, ensure that necessary resources are at hand (and have survived the jump), and decide what direction to move when the jump is completed.  If all of this information is processed correctly, the HALO jumper will be able to hit the ground running (so to speak) and will be able to realize the full potential of the advantages presented by the HALO jump.

Over the past year, we have all been riding this recession.  Some may have felt not-unlike a HALO jumper.  Although the recession seems to have turned the corner, the ride isn’t quite over yet.  Right now is a critical time for businesses, and we would do well to follow the example of the jumper during that critical period between deployment of the parachute and touchdown.

Check for any signs of ‘decompression sickness.”  The past year took its toll on virtually every organization.  Most of us are acutely aware of the financial price we have paid over the past year, but look a little deeper.  How does employee loyalty measure up to 2008?  What about morale?  How has your customers’ perception of your organization changed? 

Check your orientation.  Many businesses have been in survival mode, operating as lean as possible.  Ensure that key managers are aware of the differences between lean operation, recovery operation, and growth operation.  This will be important as your organization begins to recover and moves back towards growth. 

Take stock of the battlefield.  During the recession, have your objectives changed?  Do you see a better direction in which to move your organization?  Have you developed any innovations that may lead you towards new successes?  Not unlike our HALO jumper, we have a just few heartbeats to take stock of how our corporate battlefield has changed and designate new objectives if necessary.

Be Aware of Communication and Orders.  It is critical that each of us pays more than the usual attention to communication right now.  If new corporate objectives are established, that information must filter throughout the organization in order to facilitate a smooth transition from survival through recovery and into growth.

Ensure that necessary resources are at hand.  How many organizations were forced to downsize their workforce and delay necessary equipment upgrades?  What adjustments are necessary to meet customer requirements enough to allow the transition from survival mode to recovery mode?  What defines the point when your organization will officially move into recovery?  Further, what resource adjustments are necessary in order to move back into growth mode, and what point will define the switch from recovery to growth?

Transitioning into recovery mode will not necessarily be easy.  We are all going to have to overcome several challenges as we rise out of this recession.  For example, your organization may need to see an increase in revenue before you are able to expand your workforce.  You may be operating on a skeleton crew at this point.  How will you, with lean resources, increase revenue before you are able to enhance/replenish your resources?  Further, consider the challenges associated with training new team members when you are able to augment your survival-mode crew.

The key here is training – training new team members, cross training existing team members, training existing team members for roles of higher responsibility… we are all going to have to pay close attention to our training efforts.

PPI Technical Communications does have needs assessment and training services available; however, if you are going to develop your own training, the following 7 steps will help to organize the development process and ensure that your training is comprehensive:

1. PLAN – Identify training goal, Training Program Terminal Objective, target audience, content type, course type, method of delivery, and material requirements. PPI recommends creating a Training Program Plan document that captures the above components to be used as a reference when communicating the vision to development staff.

2. ANALYZE – Analysis and organization of information, including Training Program content and Training Program plan. Identification of Training Program Enabling Objectives (stepping stones) that will logically lead trainees to the Training Program Terminal Objective

3. DESIGN – Organization of Training Program into Courses, then Classes. Development of Course Terminal Objectives and Enabling Objectives that facilitate incorporation into the Training Program Terminal Objective and meet the Training Program Enabling Objectives. Development of Class Terminal Objectives and Enabling Objectives that facilitate incorporation into the Course Terminal Objective and meet the Course Enabling Objectives.

4. DEVELOP – Develop the training content as required in order to fit the Training Program Design and Plan.

5. IMPLEMENT – Pilot the training program

6. EVALUATE – Evaluate the Training Program, considering the results, instructor input, and trainee input.

7. REVISE – Revise the Training Program to streamline delivery and maximize effectiveness.

What direction will your organization move in when your feet touch the ground?

Value Vs. Cost

Today, many companies are struggling to find ways to become more competitive.  One of the most common methods is to drastically slash prices.  This method may increase sales, but is it really increasing your revenue?

In order to make your prospective customers aware of your price reduction, you actually have to spend more money on an advertising campaign.  It does not make a lot of sense to spend more in order to generate less revenue.

This method quickly leads to an increased importance of quantity at the expense of quality.  Large companies that are focused on accumulating a large quantity of residual income generating customers have shown a disconcerting trend – when sales efforts are largely successful, customer service falls by the wayside. 

Lowering the cost of your service is easy to do - so easy, in fact, that your unimaginative competition can do it too.  There is an alternative to lowering the quality of your service offering in order to
reduce prices.

Helping Customers to Help Themselves

It is extremely cost effective to hire a contracting company to perform a service.  The benefits of retaining contract specialists and service providers are well known.  However, there is a down-side.

When a service provider acts as a consultant and teaches their clients how to manage their services on their own, the service provider then loses their ability to retain that customer.  The end result is that a longtime business relationship between a client and a service provider must be based on secrecy.

One way to increase the value of the service that you provide is to add an educational element to your service.  Your customers will be more willing to invest in your service if you teach them to do
it themselves.

A slight shift in perception is required.  Take yourself from an ongoing service provider to a one-time service provider that includes training.  Generate your cost estimates based on the income that your company needs to complete a project and to develop and deliver training to your customers. 

You will see that you are able to increase the perceived value without decreasing your prices.  Your customers will gain  knowledge that allows them to minimize future expenditures.

PPI has taken this approach with SCULPTCM by creating an initiative that enables us to simultaneously provide three valuable services to our customers: implement a comprehensive custom solution, define a toolset that is optimized for the management of that solution, and provide training that allows our customers to manage their solution on their own (post implementation).

Our economy dictates that companies minimize their expenditures.  Companies are going to do that whether service providers like it or not.  Forward-looking service providers should see this as an opportunity to move into a new direction.