eLearning – Page 2

Profitability

What is profitability?

There are many ways to explain and understand profitability. It tells you if you made or lost money on business processes. It provides a picture of your earnings and what you spend to achieve those earnings. It tells you if your total revenue exceeds your total expenses. Put simply, profitability is your bottom line. Any number of measures or factors can improve your profitability such as reducing costs or improving productivity or developing new products and services. Moreover focussing on profitability need not compromise cash flow if measures taken are thought through.

Tips to improve your profitability

Stay focussed on your strategic objectives.
Emphasise to employees the importance of profitability.
Understand what drives profitability and use KPIs (key performance indicators) to assess and monitor it.
Don’t get involved in activities that do not contribute to your objectives.
Plan using accurate and detailed information.
Involve stakeholders in the planning and decision making process.
Ensure targets are smart and properly budgeted.
Monitor the effectiveness of plans and then review results.
Act upon lessons learned and factor likely changes into plans and modify strategy accordingly.
Benchmark your business against others and other parts of your own business.
Streamline administration and production processes where possible.
Reduce costs through efficient buying, choosing the right supplier, comparing suppliers regularly.
Minimise wastage not only of stock but of systems and employee time. See our tips on stock control.
Ensure your finance facilities continue to be competitive.
Review regularly and cut overheads such as insurance and energy bills.
Manage assets efficiently by selling unnecessary ones and leasing out those you use periodically.
Communicate with all stakeholders using a range of efficient strategies.
Instil in employees the importance of maximising the value and not just the volume of sales.
Analyse your customer base regularly.
Monitor any discounts offered to customers on a regular basis.
Centre efforts around the most profitable customers and consider selling them premium, complementary or new products.
Find new customers who are similar to your existing top customers.
Favour cheaper techniques like networking instead of paid advertising wherever possible to increase sales volume.
Focus on profitable products by improving the product mix.
Review pricing policies periodically to take account of economic changes.
Raise prices selectively or overall but try to trial price changes.
Analyse your markets, stick with profitable ones and consider going into news ones.
Ensure that the cost of extra sales people or of going into new markets is balanced by extra profit and not just extra revenue.
Run an efficient recruitment policy; use subcontractors during busy times.
Initiate training policies that bring and keep managers and employees up to the latest standards.
Reduce staff workload and labour costs through technology.
Assess how you can reduce expenses you pay out for employees.

Profit Margin Widget

Click on the image below to open our interactive profit margin flowchart widget.

Adjust the values for sales price, cost price, volume and fixed costs and dynamically see the impact on your own profit margin %.

Profit Margin Takeaway Infographic

Click on the button below to view our Profit Margin Takeaway Infographic

[button href=”http://www.brightbolts.com/resources/takeawaydemo/profitMargin_infographic_01.pdf” target=”blank”]View an example[/button]

Finance for Non-Financial Managers eLearning

Let us help you improve your own profitability with our off-the-shelf and customisable Finance for Non-Financial Managers elearning.

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The long and short of sustainability

Nestled among the glossy financial reports and well-thumbed newspapers found on corporate coffee tables, there is a new little green book entitled ‘The Sustainability Report’.

So what exactly is Sustainability and why are modern global organisations taking it so seriously?

Sustainability is a topical buzzword that can refer to anything from building landfill gas powered generators to combating gender inequality. It pops up everywhere from the green washed offices of BP to the government offices of parliament.

This lack of definition has led many corporate sustainability initiatives to be shallow, only focusing on saving energy, reducing waste, streamlining production and improving employee engagement. All of these initiatives are great, in that they improve operating profit, benefit the environment and motivate staff. However, many are really just efficiency policies. Well managed companies ought to be already running schemes to reduce energy use and cut waste. This has more to do with maximising profit than benefiting the environment. In fact, many of these initiatives do not do much for the environment as the organisations fail to look outside of their own businesses. For example, the majority of greenhouse-gas emissions associated with consumer goods are produced either in the supply chain or by shoppers.

The ability of companies to find, recruit and manage talent hinges upon having an effective employee engagement and development strategy, not on corporate videos showing grinning employees awkwardly dancing to the latest global music phenomenon.

As a result, most corporate sustainability initiatives are not much more than cost –saving, compliance and PR exercises – very few companies actually include sustainability at the core of what they do.

This is beginning to change, organisations are beginning to not just focus on their own green foot-print, but are beginning to look at broader schemes and targets to improve the environment and society. Organisations are looking at helping suppliers, sellers and customers as well as themselves. There are varied schemes such as improving the wage levels and safety of supply chain factory workers, schemes that focus on helping farmers in the supply chain to maximise their consumption of water and schemes that look at improving the business skills of the small business owners that sell a company’s products. Unilever are singled out as the leaders in this area with their ‘Sustainable Living Plan’. They are aiming to help a billion people to take steps to improve their health and well-being; halve the environmental impact of their products; and source all of their agricultural raw materials sustainably.

Unlike the earlier mentioned efficiency schemes, many of these sorts of initiatives raise costs and bring no real short term financial rewards – so why should companies make sustainability central to what they do?

The argument is that good sustainable policies improve the fundamentals of business in the long run. It can change customer’s behaviour in positive ways – by perhaps increasing the demand for green products. Consumers, regulators and shareholders are also increasingly demanding about how organisations behave, improving reputation through positive action improves goodwill and perceived value. Sustainability should therefore not be viewed as a short-term scheme to increase efficiency but as a passport to trade in the future and a boost to a company’s long-term competitive position.

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Trends and forecast in eLearning

The LMS provider Docebo commissioned a fantastic report on the health of the elearning industry. It is a document that I have referred to a great deal in recent months, so thought I would share the facts and figures that I found most useful/interesting. All content is taken directly from the Docebo report. A link to the full document can be found at the end of this post.

Trends and forecast in eLearning

There seems to be universal agreement that the worldwide E-Learning market will show fast and significant growth over the next three years. The worldwide market for Self-Paced E-Learning reached $35.6 billion in 2011. The five-year compound annual growth rate is estimated at around 7.6% so revenues should reach some $51.5 billion by 2016. While the aggregate growth rate is 7.6%, several world regions appear to have significantly higher growth rates. According to recent regional studies, the highest growth rate is in Asia at 17.3%, followed by Eastern Europe, Africa, and Latin America at 16.9%, 15.2%, and 14.6%, respectively.

Each of the world’s regions has its idiosyncrasies In terms of the factors that drive this market. The U.S. and Western Europe markets are the most mature. The U.S.A. spent more on Self-Paced E-Learning than anywhere else in the world.

Western Europe is the world’s second largest buying region for E-Learning products and services but Asia is predicted to outspend Western Europe in E-Learning terms by 2016.

In 2012, Bersin & Associates stated that there were some 500 providers in the LMS market and only five of them have more than a 4% market share. According to this, the LMS market was expected to reach $1.9 billion in 2013. However the growth exceeded expectations, closing the year at $2.55 billion.

E-Learning is subjected to the influences of sales trends related to smart connected devices and the Internet megatrend (that is, the spread of the Internet in the world).

According to IDC, the number of PCs will fall from 28.7% of the device market in 2013 to 13% in 2017. Tablets will increase from 11.8% in 2013 to 16.5% by 2017, and smartphones will increase from 59.5% to 70.5%.

The new frontier to address is the trend towards Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) — where individuals take their personal (usually mobile) devices to workplaces. Increasingly, these seem to be being used to help their owners perform work activities (including formal training), both in and out of the workplace. Smartphones are the most common examples of these devices but employees often also use their tablets or laptops in the workplace.

While the corporate-training market has lagged behind other education-based sectors, it continues to represent a viable investment opportunity. The corporate-training market is among the most cyclical within the education industry. Since 2010, employers’ total spending on training and the amount spent per employee — the key data used to measure this sector — have been

declining. However, the corporate market related to outsourced services (net of all ancillary costs) has grown to reach 42% of total expenditure.

Within the training industry, the E-Learning sector has grown consistently in recent years. All its subsectors (Packaged Content, Platform, and Authoring tools) show positive annual

growth. Market acceptance of E-Learning has resulted in its increased use for both large and small companies. SaaS/ Cloud E-Learning solutions are particularly suitable for Organizations ranging from SMEs to large institutions.

General budget constraints appear to be the main drivers of the shift towards using E-Learning. However, E-Learning is not merely a solution which is attractive during an economic downturn but it is also an efficient and cost-effective solution when workers — especially those in Organizations with a widely geographically distributed workforce — need to be brought up-to-speed quickly on relevant knowledge and skills.

With the inflow of an estimated $6 billion of venture capital over the past five years, E-Learning is being driven not only by startup dot-com entrepreneurs but also by big corporations, for-profit spin-off ventures, as well as big and small universities.

According to Product & Users, the LMS market is expected to experience a growth of 23.17% between 2017 and 2018. According to Ambient Insight, the packaged content market will reach $38.3 billion by 2016 (SOURCE: AMBIENT INSIGHT 2012).

According to sources, large and affirmed Companies (such as the Global 5000) are the primary buyers of E-Learning products and services. They account for more than 30% of the E-Learning Market clientele.

Total E-Learning Market

(LMS + Packaged Content + Other Services)

	2013	2016
Total	40.605	51.172
North America	23.800	27.100
Western Europe	6.800	8.100
Eastern Europe	729	1.200
Asia	7.100	11.500
Middle East	443	560
Africa	333	512
Latin America	1.400	2.200

Packaged Content

	2013	2016
Total	30.153	38.000
North America	17.674	20.124
Western Europe	5.050	6.015
Eastern Europe	541	891
Asia	5.272	8.540
Middle East	329	416
Africa	247	380
Latin America	1.040	1.634

LMS Market

(covering all the technical solutions available)

	2013	2016
Total	2.550	3.214
North America	1.495	1.702
Western Europe	427	509
Eastern Europe	46	75
Asia	446	722
Middle East	28	35
Africa	21	32
Latin America	88	138

Other services related to E-Learning activities

	2013	2016
Total	7.902	9.958
North America	4.632	5.274
Western Europe	1.323	1.576
Eastern Europe	142	234
Asia	1.382	2.238
Middle East	86	109
Africa	65	100
Latin America	272	428

AFRICA

The people of Africa seem willing to engage with new technologically-based tools to improve their education, knowledge and skills. However, the continent’s infrastructure is proving to be a major challenge and an obstacle to meeting this growing level of demand.

2013 Revenues	$332.9M
Annual growth rate	15.2%
Revenues by 2016	$512.7M

EASTERN EUROPE

2013 Revenues	$728.8M
Annual growth rate	16.9%
Revenues by 2016	$1.2B

ASIA

Asia has the world’s highest regional growth rate for E-Learning, of 17.3%.

Revenues from the sale of E-Learning reached $5.2 billion in 2011 and are expected to more than double to $11.5 billion by 2016. The vast majority of these revenues will be generated from the sales of packaged content.

2013 Revenues	$7.1B
Annual growth rate	17.3%
Revenues by 2016	$11.5B

NORTH AMERICA

North America is the most mature market for E-Learning in the world. In 2011, the U.S.A. spent more on Self-Paced E-Learning than anywhere else in the world.

While the rate of growth in this market may seem low compared with other world regions (at a mere 4.4%), the revenues generated in this market are extremely high.

2013 Revenues	$23.8B
Annual growth rate	4.4%
Revenues by 2016	$27.1B

WESTERN EUROPE

Western Europe is the world’s second largest buying region for E-Learning products and services after North America.

This is set to change in the upcoming forecasted period. Asia is predicted to outspend Western Europe in E-Learning terms by 2016.

“Despite being a mature market, 2013 was nevertheless a transitional year for E-Learning in Western Europe. We can put aside the buzz about MOOCs in higher education and all the noise about a coming shift to mobile.

“For those of us who focus on workplace learning, the interesting shift is the number of small and medium sized businesses that have started to adopt sophisticated learning technologies. With the pricing structure of products such as Docebo, suddenly smaller companies are realizing that there is a very low barrier to entry for them to have enterprise grade capability in this area.

“The other trend we’ve observed, from the larger corporations in our client base, is a shift to outsourcing the development of E-Learning content to professional agencies rather than building in-house. We’re excited about the landscape for 2014.”

Guy McEvoy, Managing Director, Guykat

2013 Revenues	$6.8B
Annual growth rate	5.8%
Revenues by 2016	$8.1B

LATIN AMERICA

2013 Revenues	$1.4B
Annual growth rate	14.6%
Revenues by 2016	$2.2B

MIDDLE EAST

The Middle Eastern E-Learning market is growing rapidly due to market makers, such as Governments, Private Schools and Corporations. This infographic relates to 2013 E-Learning revenues, the market annual growth rate and the forecasts for revenues in 2016.

Oman is the top performer in E-Learning terms for the rankings that cover the Middle East. Oman has the highest growth rate in the region at 19.6%, followed by Lebanon (16.0%), Turkey (12.9%), Kuwait (12.6%) and Qatar (11.3%).

This is mainly because the Government of Oman is interested in issues relating to education and computer literacy and, consequently, is investing heavily in the sector.

For example, Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) regularly provides professional development workshops for its staff.

This acquaints them with E-Learning technology from an educator’s perspective. To date, over 200 staff have attended such workshops. In addition, almost as many regular courses have some E-Learning content included.

“Middle Eastern Governments are strongly committed to promoting a Mass Digitalization process. This means that heavy investments are being made in this initiative. This is especially true for Soft Skills training. This is designed to quickly and competitively improve the workforce. Is compliance training in this region the next “big thing”? Time will tell, but lots of regulations are already coming…”

Claudio Erba, CEO & Founder, Docebo

2013 Revenues	$443m
Annual growth rate	8.2%
Revenues by 2016	$560.7M

The full report can be downloaded from the Docebo website at:

https://www.docebo.com/landing/contactform/elearning-market-trends-and-forecast-2014-2016-docebo-report.pdf

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Finance for non-financial managers – why it’s time to switch on

Try this at your next meeting: when your financial colleagues start talking numbers watch everyone’s reaction. Ten to one you’ll see panic or boredom or a mass exodus from the room. What many managers may not realise is that people who are switched on to finance make business better for themselves and for the company.

Boost your credibility

Imagine you’re at that meeting again and this time instead of running for the exit you use your training in finance for non-financial managers to engage with the accountants. Maybe you question their analysis or put forward your own proposals or make your own decisions. Whichever you do, you’ll find that because you’ve backed up your position with figures and facts you’re more likely to win the support of other colleagues.

Do a better job

Whatever kind of manager you are and whatever kind of industry you work in finance will play a part in your life. At some point you’ll have to read balance sheets, analyse spread-sheets, record financial information and assess ROI. Finance is an intrinsic part of business and if you don’t understand it you aren’t able to play a full part in the organisation.

Understand fundamental financial terminology and concepts

Did you know that the average Joe (or Joanna) knows up to 50,000 words and uses up to 10,000 in every day speech? Amazing! Our guess is that you would be less surprised to learn that those 50,000 don’t include asset turnover flowchart or sensitivity analysis. The definitions and concepts behind these and other terms are nevertheless essential knowledge for every non-financial manager who wants to have meaningful communications with all colleagues and to make informed decisions.

Read and interpret financial statements to make effective decisions

Just as a doctor must understand medical records to assess patient health and progress so managers need to be able to read financial statements to assess how well a business is doing. Financial statements form the basic structure of performance measurement. Ignore them at your peril!

Gauge impact of decisions on financial performance

All managers know the importance of the bottom line but not all know that every decision can have consequences for the bottom line. So it’s only good sense for managers to have the know-how to estimate the likely financial effects before and after decisions. Remember that financial performance informs partners, investors, competitors, stakeholders and many more on how your company is doing and determines their reactions.

Understand the basis for evaluating investment decisions

Whatever kind of business you’re in you will need to invest money to generate future profits. It goes without saying, therefore, that investment decisions require the evaluation of costs, benefits and risks in order that managers can make the right choices. Bad investment decisions can cost you and your company more than lost opportunities.

Communicate effectively with financial colleagues and specialists

Communication is a two-way street. As a manager you will need to understand finance in order to influence the board, persuade partners, implement decisions, set expectations and question accountants and financial managers by way of charts, graphs and tables and with reference to financial information and targets.

Use a range of financial tools when making decisions

By understanding and employing the correct financial tools you will be able to examine the factors that affect the figures and be able to ask the right questions so you make the right decisions. Don’t worry – you won’t end up with more tools than in your garage tool box; a good finance course will cover what’s necessary in the language and detail that you need.

Prepare for the unknown

Forewarned is forearmed as the saying goes and getting a firm grip of your financials will stand you in good stead for dealing with eventualities such as changes in competition, customers, economy or legislation. When you understand finance, you understand one of the main anchors of business and you can deliver results.

Browse our library of customisable Finance for Non-Financial Managers eLearning courses.

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Musings on MOOCs

MOOCs burst onto the scene in 2012 with lots of hype and press attention. There was talk about the democratisation of education and disruption to the corporate training market, but what is the reality now that we are 3 years in?

MOOC stands for Massive Open Online Courses. The concept was born out of US academia, with the idea that a university could freely make available it’s teaching programmes online through the use of video, assessment and forums, opening up the programmes to an unlimited number of people. The first MOOC was a huge success in this regard, enrolling some 100,000 people.

Essentially, a MOOC is an LMS that provides free access to blended programmes of online content (video, assessments & forums).

There are now successful ‘for-profit’ MOOCs, such as Udacity & Coursera and ‘non-profit’ MOOCs such as edX that provides access to university content, but all the hype seems to have fallen flat.
Universities are now getting onboard, but generally in the capacity of using MOOCs as a promotional taster to drive enrolment to their fee-paying residential programmes.

Some institutions have also adopted the ‘Freemium’ approach, where the course is free – but you pay for certification.

Neither the ‘for profit’ or ‘non-profit’ MOOCS have had the predicted major impact on education or corporate training (yet).

From the outset, completion rates have been a big problem. Out of the 100,000 people who enrolled on the first MOOC only 1,000 saw it through to completion. There is much discussion in regards the reasons for this, the following 2 points most regularly surface:

The learning experience is not engaging.
It’s free, so people are less committed.

Both points are valid.

Effective elearning is well designed to be interactive, to engage, immerse, test and entertain. Lots of skill, thought, expertise and money is put into the development of good online courses. Video can be a fantastic resource for the transfer of knowledge, but not if it is simply a video of lecturer talking – especially if the video is too long. Online assessment, peer assessment and conversation on forums serve a purpose, but fall way short of the experience of engaging and facilitated classroom discussion.

If you pay for something, you are investing in it, so levels of commitment will naturally be higher. However, MOOCs are supposed to be ‘Open’. ‘Open’ = FREE.

Education as the antedote for poverty is a hugely romantic and captivating idea. Sadly, the reality is that 85% of those people who use MOOCs already have a degree and tend to be drawn from the already privileged in society. Knowledge is already free, the internet if full of amazing free resources, so perhaps the curation of this free content could have just as much impact?

The impact on corporate training has yet to be felt. Corporate training programmes don’t tend to be ‘Massive’ or ‘Open’, so I do not foresee any huge impact. Online programmes from a prestigious university would of course be attractive to a large corporate. However, recent years have seen a big shift in bespoke and customised content – so the one-size fits all approach may not be that attractive.

My prediction for the future is that the leading universities and business schools will succeed in creating an online presence. They have the money to invest, so can develop high quality content and sell it on the back of their brands. Offering certification and badges without watering down the value of their traditional programmes. They have no choice but to shift their teaching practices to meet the technological expectations of Generation C.

The question to then ask is – is this not just elearning?

Parallels between MOOCs and the eLearning industry of 15 years ago can be drawn. eLearning had a tough time due to the practice of selling vast libraries of poorly made off-the-shelf content. Completion rates were poor, because of quality, relevance and also due to lack of internal promotion by the companies who bought it. Thankfully lessons have been learnt and elearning is now accepted as an effective method of training. The universities seem to me to be following the same route.
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CCL Academy Mobile Snippets

Brightbolts are pleased to announce that they are working with the CCL Academy in the design, development, hosting and delivery of its library of mobile ready eLearning modules. This strategic partnership will see the development of a full suite of customisable modules in support of CCL’s existing portfolio of Compliance, Risk and Governance courses delivered in the UK and Middle East.

Martin Mitchell, Director of Training Services at CCL is overseeing the project and said of Brightbolts:

“From the outset, Brightbolts have been fantastic to work with. They understood exactly what was needed and have delivered solutions that have way exceeded our expectations. Their creativity, technical skill and hard work have helped to shape a suite of courses that are already going down a storm with our clients.”

Dave Jones, CEO and Founder of Brightbolts said of the CCL Academy:

“Martin and Tom of CCL are the perfect clients with great vision for the future of their business. Martin knows the world of eLearning – so working with him as a subject matter expert is a dream. We are hugely proud of the work we have produced with them and look forward to many more successful projects.”

Click below for a demo of CCL’s content, designed for delivery on mobile, tablet and PC.

Launch Demo

To find out more about CCL Academy’s training offering, please contact: Martin Mitchell, +44 (0)20 7638 9830.

For more information on Brightbolts, please give us a call or complete a contact form to discuss your needs.

Feel free to email or phone us on info@brightbolts.com + (0) 1727 229928.
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The Brightbolts Manifesto

With a General Election looming, it seems like the perfect time for us to publish our own manifesto, detailing our ethics, philosophy, vision, mission and values.

We hope that this resonates with you and gives you a good understanding of why we are in business, how we operate and what we want to achieve.

We very much look forward to having the opportunity of working with you.

Dave & Conor – Brightbolts Founders

Our Ethics and Philosophy

Creative, enjoyable and effective

Imaginative learning solutions that deliver for both the individual and the organisation.

Customer-centric

Listening first and then exceeding expectations with solutions and services designed and delivered to truly meet the needs of our clients, to create value and make a difference.

Experience and professionalism applied

Delivering the best solutions for our clients based on our 35 years collective experience, knowledge and skills in eLearning, design, technology and management development.

Customisation and flexibility

Designed for you by us to meet your exact needs and challenges.

Honesty, integrity and transparency

Everything is clear and simple.

Ownership

We take personal responsibility for our clients, projects, products and programmes.

Eureka!

We are in the business of imparting knowledge, creating acumen and fostering new skills. Facilitating the Eureka moment, creating value, making a difference and bringing about positive change.

Our Vision

We believe that we are on the face of the earth to create flexible, imaginative, enjoyable and effective learning solutions that impart knowledge, create acumen and encourage new skills. We are in the business of facilitating the Eureka moment – creating value, making a difference bringing about positive change for both the individual and the organisation. We provide our customers with the absolute very best solutions, services and experience, meeting communicated needs and exceeding expectations where ever possible.

Our Mission

Our mission at Brightbolts is to design and deliver the absolute very best online learning solutions for our clients. We apply our imagination, creativity, experience, skill and customer-centric focus to provide learning solutions that create value and make a difference, that meet communicated needs and exceed expectations. The purpose of our work is to impart knowledge, create acumen and encourage new skills, to bring positive change for both the individual and the organisation whilst at the same time providing an enjoyable, entertaining and innovative learning experience.

Our Values

Customer

Your needs are at the heart of everything we do

Service

We take pride in exceeding expectations

Transparency

Integrity informs the way we behave

Value

Creating value for and making a positive difference to our clients

Creativity

Imaginative, innovative and creative design to educate, entertain and to positively affect change

Enjoyment

We do this because we enjoy it.
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