Excellent initiative announced today – RBS corporate managers being trained in credit risk (?) and also to spend 2 days with a local small business. In the late 90’s NatWest ran one of their most succesful programmes ever – in conjunction with Durham Business School’s (DUBS) small business unit. We did just that – but included some unique ‘education’ on what makes running a small business different and the issues they face, not least with bank managers. I hope they have some clear ‘training objectives’ for this and it is not being done just for political reasons. Two days is time away from the coal face that these guys cannot afford (they are forced to have enough as it is). I ran the DUBS programme for 2 years and we piloted and managed ‘days out’ with local businesses and it is not as easy as you would think to get right – for either party. I was one of the first to ‘venture out’ (regards to Neil Tuckett of Tuckett Bros – enjoyed the day thanks again – I hope the Model T-Ford is still going?) and it worked for me but not for others. Perhaps Chris Sullivan (Head of RBS’s Corporate Bank) should tap some ‘old campaigners’ for their thoughts as they finalise the plan here? I applaud the thinking though and good luck to RBS in the implementation. The devil is in the detail…
PS – I also think it is a sound strategy to train them in credit risk (perhaps the press picked that one up wrong?).
PPS – If I recall correctly the DUBS course was cancelled when RBS took over NatWest – but hey, we live in different times…….