It’s always nice to find out that your predictions have come true…
A year and a half ago, in an interview about the training market in Romania, I said that just as supermarket chains run by multinational corporations imposed their own rules, effectively destroying small neighborhood shops, the same thing is happening in the training market.

The Corporate Takeover of Training

But, honestly, I didn’t think things would happen this fast! If we add to this—or note—the fact that the training sector has become attractive to the big players, involving money from European funding, the fact that certain training standards are being imposed, certifications, approvals, and ISO standards, or the fact that these corporations want to work exclusively with each other (not to mention that the Romanian branch of Corporation X in England will turn to the Romanian training provider at Company Y, also in England, and so the money goes back to where it came from…), and in any case, they want “internationally recognized” training from a well-known brand (preferably made in the US), it’s clear that the room to maneuver for those without a mega-structure behind them is getting smaller and smaller.

Will Freelance Trainers Disappear?

In principle, this would be a positive thing, at least on the surface: at some point, once the training field became economically attractive, an unspecified number of unlicensed individuals, retrained teachers, and unemployed managers appeared overnight—people who had read a few books or attended a weekend seminar and proclaimed themselves trainers and coaches.
The result is that, obviously, the client only realizes their lack of professionalism after one or more unsuccessful training sessions; in any case, they are completely bewildered by an oversupply where everyone boasts of being the best, of having who knows how many international certifications, and in any case judges more by brochures than by content.

So, the fact that there is an intention to clean up the industry by raising standards and removing the incompetent/unprofessional from the market is certainly a good thing.

Raising Standards or Raising Barriers?

Unfortunately, the inevitable result will be that a single freelance trainer, who must meet the same certification, ISO, and approval requirements as a training corporation—knowing that they have no chance of landing the big contracts anyway—simply can’t keep up and will give up on you, change careers, or get hired by one of these big companies.

Obviously, this is a global economic process in which the training market is merely a microfraction, so we have no way to resist it; it is a process in which power is shifting from nation-states to multinational corporations (many of which have a larger budget than some countries) and, whether we like it or not, they will likely lead us toward a form of “de facto” communism in which the only way to survive will be to get a job at one of these corporations, if you don’t want to starve to death.
(Note: If anyone thinks I’m exaggerating in my predictions, they should consider that the officials on the Brussels committees who set the standards influence the lives of 400 million people without giving any justification and without being elected by anyone. It would take a long treatise to explain certain things; maybe I’ll start a blog.)

McDonald’s or McTraining?

McDonald’s is the most paradigmatic example of generating profit with minimal effort, achieving near-perfection in resource optimization, and somewhat satisfying customers’ need to fill their stomachs without thinking too much, with a guaranteed product that looks the same in every corner of the world.
My question is: if we take Chinese, Italian, French, or Romanian chefs—perhaps with decades of experience and their own repertoire of dishes—and, for economic reasons, force them to prepare cheeseburgers and Big Macs, are we really doing a good job? Is this really in the customer’s best interest?
I mean, we certainly offer a guaranteed product, we certainly satisfy the customer’s nutritional needs to some extent, we certainly make a higher profit, but… do we realize what we’re losing?
In this “but” lies all my sadness and concern.

What Are We Losing?

When I see the number of trainers who, in their line of work, do nothing but parrot others’ theories and read PowerPoint slides translated by some cheap software (and, with all due respect, often uttering platitudes I’d be ashamed to say myself…), I keep thinking that I don’t like the world we’re heading toward at all.

And perhaps I’ll make another prediction: within two to three years at most, not only will those who think for themselves and don’t submit to corporate logic be economically pushed out of the market; they’ll simply find a way to make it FORBIDDEN to say anything different from what the big companies say.

The Price of Standardization

This is nothing new; every dictatorship has tried to do this, and the corporate dictatorship will be no different.

Anyway, when we’re all forced to eat hamburgers made with genetically modified meat (to maximize profits) and plastic potatoes, just know that I’ll always be somewhere in a secret basement, ready to serve resistance groups a plate of spaghetti alla carbonara or trenette al pesto. My own recipes.

Best regards,

Bruno

P.S.: Necessary Additions

I shared the article with some friends before sending it out, as I usually do to get feedback, and I was told that it conveys frustration, negativity, concern, aggression (things I can agree with), and criticism of other trainers (which is not true at all: many are my friends; they have done nothing but adapt to market demands, and they are the first to tell me, “Bruno, one company wants ISO certification, another wants CNFPA approval, another wants an international license, another wants the trendy course… if I don’t satisfy them, I don’t get any work”
So, this is not at all about criticism, but about sharing their frustration at having to submit to certain rules that are becoming increasingly suffocating and whose sole purpose—in my opinion—is to destroy any personal initiative and any independent thinking.
And while I am very aware of my privileged position (I don’t consider training a “business” but a way of communicating with people; I have other sources of income; I hold a lot of free training sessions for students and so I can afford to do what I want), I am somewhat concerned about the moment when—under one pretext or another—I am forbidden from speaking because my views are not “aligned” with those of corporations.
As I said, this is about something much bigger, and probably unstoppable; two examples, among millions: in Italy I stay in the countryside, and when I’m there I always get fresh, just-laid eggs from my neighbor—an old woman with some chickens.
But now, that’s no longer possible… In order to give me the eggs, the old woman must have: a certificate from a veterinarian, an ISO certificate, a certificate of compliance with the standards for the building where the chickens are kept, a tax ID, a machine to stamp the eggs with the date, and at least 50 chickens—just to name what I can recall. If she violates any of these, she risks fines that would leave her on the street. The result is that when she gives me the eggs, we take so many precautions it’s as if we’re smuggling drugs… Of course, all this in the name of “raising standards” and “consumer rights.”

Another example, which has been widely discussed because of its spectacular idiocy: a merchant in England was forced to destroy 5,000 kiwis—perfect and good—because they were one millimeter smaller than the standard imposed by Brussels. He wasn’t even allowed to give them away as gifts because the fine would have been even higher. Please read the article carefully, because it is a good example of what I mean and what lies ahead for us: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/50039/Banned-by-the-Eurocrats-kiwi-fruit-just-1mm-too-small
And anyway, nothing beats the Treaty of Lisbon, which will shape our future: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex:12007L/TXT

Take a look, and ask yourselves what kind of people could have produced such a piece of delirium (which most countries approved without consulting their citizens) and what interests they serve.

Naturally, time will tell whether I was right or if this is just a bout of paranoia.
But remember: in any historical period, when those in power have tried to control thought (and corporations are the real power today) and silence critical thinking, what followed was never pleasant. And I won’t miss the opportunity to send this message as long as I can.