Coconuts and Balloons

Daylight robbery of bank vehicle carrying cash in Bangalore few days back was a shocker. Few armed men stopped the Chevrolet Travera car and looted Rs. 1.85 Crore cold cash. Interestingly the CMS vehicle had an armed security guard. A newspaper report indicates that the only prior experience that the guard had of shooting was that of coconuts and balloons in his village. He claimed that the security agency only gave him oral instructions on how to use a firearm and he never received an actual training of using a firearm. Funny? Not really, a statistics shows that most security guards are poorly trained. According to the Private Security Agencies (Regulation) Act, 2005, it is mandatory for private guards to undergo at least 160 hours of training before being posted on duty and undertake an additional five days of training annually. But most agencies fulfill the norms on paper by doing training as a formality.


However this is not only true in the case of security guards. People employed in high stake jobs are also many times poorly trained. In 2011 three women in Florida lost their lives at the hands of ill-trained cosmetic surgeons from a lidocaine (painkiller) overdose administered during liposuction.

In yet another incident, in 2009 Airbus A330 of Air France flying through high altitude thunderstorm dropped down and crashed killing 228 passengers. The investigations by French investigators reportedly revealed that the captain of the plane was taking rest when the aircraft began to fall and the co-pilots had received no high altitude training for the unreliable IAS (indicated air speed). The investigations report concluded as ‘The situation was salvageable’. Can’t get more unfortunate than this!

In 2009 another air crash was nearly averted after the crew aboard US Airways Flight 1549 acted heroically after birds hit their plane over New York. However the pilots had not been trained on soft water landing in case of an emergency and hence the the plane hit the water three times harder than it should have while doing the emergency landing. This caused immense damage to the aircraft causing the water to pour-in. The evacuation was chaotic and problematic as a result. The 155 people on-bad had a close shave.

It is shocking how organizations cut corners & discount training and as a result short-change their stakeholders. External engagement with customers, investors, community at large is directly dependent upon the internal engagement that an organization builds with its employees. Investing in competency development of employees engages the employee by improving his job performance and charting a career path for him. On the other hand this leads to better customer service, better customer retention, better organizational performance, better returns to investors which is engaging and enduring.