Management training should equip you with the analytical tools to be able to make difficult decisions. However there are often so many imponderables that some choices can seem more like gambling than well reasoned decisions. Nobody knows what tomorrow will bring.

There are some directions which you may feel forced to take, but you always need to take a balanced view. We are currently undergoing a world recession, or if you prefer, economic downturn. Companies need to trim their costs, we are told. How can they do that quickly? Well, they can shop around for better deals on some of their overheads like power and telephones, but the biggest overhead is usually staff costs. Unfortunately, the quickest way to reduce costs is to reduce staffing.

This, in turn, means that as the upturn in business arrives, there is pressure not to over commit on the wages bill. This leads to considering outsourcing. However, there are a number of arguments against this.

It is expensive. There may be short term savings but the money could be spent on the personal development and training of your current employees. It can affect company morale negatively and the outsourcing company can’t possibly know your business as well as you do.