Many years ago, I sank a few grand into a personal equity plan (PEP) run by Morgan Grenfell. Two years later that tidy sum had dwindled. Quite a feat in an equity market that was growing like Topsy. If only one of the City’s leading fund managers had been at the helm.
Now I learn, thanks to a BBC Worldwide management training DVD, that one was. ‘Superwoman’ Nicola Horlick was Morgan Grenfell managing director in the 1990s, and turned it into an uber-professional operation, apparently. I guess I was just plain unlucky.
She is one of the top turns on Fifty Lessons in Business Excel-lence, a set of talks by business ‘stars’ available online and on DVD and video. Each speaker has a three-to-five-minute slot, during which they air their views on a particular business topic. These are accompanied by written material – either in hard-copy form or online.
The basic tenet is that the target audience – senior executives learning how to run businesses – have access to the collected wisdom of business gurus.
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Horlick’s is on professionalism. For her, that’s about attention to detail: from knowing as much as you can about clients to ensuring that all written communications conform to a company-wide style.
Each speaker uses the story-telling medium. This is fine as long as the material is set in an inform-ed and informative context. More of this should be on the DVD. It gives minimal information about the speakers, their careers and their ups and downs. I would like more up-to-date biographical and contextual information on-screen as it would make it easier for the viewer to relate to the speakers.
A basic corporate entry model known as a, Fifty Lessons in Business resource package, including DVDs, costs £4,995.
Additional licenses for the package cost £100 per user per year.
Contact details: BBC Worldwide 020 8433 3967.
www.bbcbusinesslearning.com
