This article may be judged by you as self-serving.  I'm so passionate about the truth of it that I'm willing to risk you coming to that conclusion.  Besides, it's not me talking, although it is something I've said for many years.

I was in one of my browsing moods at Mitchell Airport in Milwaukee last week.  There is a rather large used/old bookstore, the likes of which you won't find in many places, especially airports.  It was there that I came upon a book called 110 Tested Plans that Increased Factory Profits.  

Don't get hung up on the word "factory." These principles are true for any type of organization.  And I quote (all italics are mine):

"During the past year, the men in charge of production in a good many companies have turned to foremanship training to actually reduce manufacturing costs.

"(Next) year will bring major studies in foremanship training as a means to, not as an adjunct of, cost-cutting.  A handful of companies-Delco-Light and Oakland Motor among the leaders-have attained substantial, definite, dollars-and-cents profits from training their foremen.

"Training pays because it enables a foreman to qualify himself to bear responsibilities which, properly borne, let him operate his department at a profit.  The foreman is a key man because he can open or bar the way to (these) profits. 

"Directly in the hands of the average foreman is a machinery investment equivalent to his lifetime earnings.  Material and supplies far in excess of the equipment's value flow through his department in a year.  If the foreman succeeds in giving the machinery just a little better care or in saving just a little spoilage or in increasing the quality of the work his men turn out, he makes a substantial contribution to corporate profits.

"Not long ago an industrial engineer of national prominence analyzed the troubles of many industrial companies which had called him in to help them over difficult times.  He was forced to conclude that the common denominator of the (struggling) industries...was poor foremanship. 

"And he declares that if the foremen in these industries had been adequately trained...the industrial difficulties would have been materially reduced and sound profits substituted for losses. 

"He found that most foremen had been selected because of their superior knowledge of the mechanics of the job, because they knew tools, they knew machinery and the product.

"But their new jobs placed them in the entirely new position where instead of being producers they must be leaders.  Lacking the training for these new responsibilities, these men failed in foremanship.  Many of their corporate employers failed because the foremen failed."

Now the interesting bit of news...this book was written by a collection of industry leaders in the year 1928.  No, really...1928!!!   

Simply put, training, effectively and thoroughly done, is not an expense at all-it's a money-maker.

The main responsibility in running a business is to understand which actions today bring profits tomorrow.  The actions that do produce profits we do, the actions that don't we don't. 

Real training (not a "policy" of training, not just enough training to assuage your guilt, not training when you find the time, not training that you only do when you happen to have a little extra cash lying around) does.