I like your metaphor; if I may, I would extend it a little further and contend that before you can bake a pie, you need the correct ingredients.

Given that knowledge, skills, and expertise are some of the key ‘ingredients’ that enable organizations to perform and be successful in their market space, it seems counter-productive for decision-makers to omit these from their ‘corporate pie.’

As a Learning & Development manager, I sometimes feel that I am preaching to the converted when I discuss the challenges to the industry on my blog. My view is that the real challenge is convincing those with the chequebook that reverting to the traditional behavior of reducing the training budget (because that’s what we’ve always done in tough times in the past) is a false economy.

In the context of e-learning in particular, we can say that using the internet infrastructure with collaboration environments such as Webex or Adobe Connect, as as well as authoring tools like Camtasia, Articulate, and (even) PowerPoint can produce very positive returns on investment when compared to the costs associated with instructor-led training (travel and teaching environment costs, courseware manual printing costs, reduced productivity from taking people out of work and into the classroom etc).

So, I guess the real question is, how do we prove the business case for e-learning (and training in general)?
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I guess it all depends on whether training etc, are viewed as the topping on the pie or the pastry base.

The problem with the topping is that in times of plenty it’s usually flashy and expensive. If it is seen that the pie is just as nutritious without the topping, of course it’s going to go in times of financial hardship, and rightly so!

On the other hand, the pastry base doesn’t have to be flashy at all but the pie falls apart without it. In times of financial hardship we can get buy with making it with plainpack ingredients and few will tell the difference!

Assessing the worths in those terms and you’ll soon know why the training departments etc, go out the door.

The thing is, the fault is in how these areas are viewed to begin with. Often, unfortunately, these departments are included as add-ons (topping) to meet some legislative requirement instead of as foundation (pastry base) that’s seen as superfluous in times of financial hardship.

Which would you rather have – a pie with no topping, or a pie with no base?

This is the question that must be asked first before training etc, are established in the organisation. When it is clear from the beginning that foundation is necessary for cohesion and function, there should be no question of the worth of these important areas in times of financial hardship.