What's New?

The ALLIANCE Academy receives a big welcome from the "Big Apple" for the New York SuperSession this month. If our current response rate continues, we will have to hold another session that week to accommodate all of the operators interested in registering their team. This information-packed session will be held at World-Wide Business Centres located on Madison Avenue on November 28-29, 2007.

We kick off our first day with technology specialists from around the world who provide solutions to your technology problems. Students will benefit from the focus of Thursday's lessons, "Driving Revenue through Exceptional Service." "You will not want to miss this opportunity to lead your business to greatness," said Academy Executive Director Susan Smith. "This is an excellent opportunity to learn first-hand from the experts."

This industry workshop is an official credentialing certificate class and is sure provide all students with a new approach to partnering with clients and motivating team members to be the best they can be.

Masters of the Academy

The ALLIANCE Academy is proud to introduce Master of the Academy Susan Cauthen. This industry veteran of 17 years joins us as an Academy Director. Susan has worked with some of the best companies in the business, such as Omni Offices, HQ, and Interactive Executive Centers. Susan's resume of positions and accomplishments highlights her as an industry pro. Her most recent assignment was Vice President of US Operations for Interactive Business Centers, in which Susan was responsible for a 3.9 million dollar budget to open 11 of the company's 33 centers, and relocate, renovate and expand many other locations. She accomplished this 400,000 square feet project in only two and a half years. Susan is also a licensed real estate agent for the state of Georgia.

How is that for outstanding performance? She deserves an Academy Award!

Susan Smith is the Executive Director of the Academy and has over 13 years under her belt as an industry professional. Anyone who knows her knows her passion for this industry. As soon as Susan became involved in training, she knew she had found her niche. Susan has held Director of Training positions for two of the largest business center operators in the US. Engage Susan in your company training, and sit back and enjoy the positive results.

We will be profiling additional trainers as well as members of our Board of Directors in coming issues. The Academy is in the last stage of finalizing our Board of Directors and will announce those key Academy positions in January 2008.

Training that Works

We have all heard the saying "there is always room for improvement." Let the Academy improve your team member performance, client relationships and center revenue. If you haven't already signed up to be an Academy student, do so today and see for yourself the industry programs available to your centers. Our learning management system allows us to track each team member's credentialing progress and provides targeted programs for every center position.

Front line team members learn quickly how to incorporate added-value selling with our "Selling Services – Increasing Revenue" workshop and Sales Managers increase their market exposure with the "Marketing Strategies – Local to Global" workshop. Those are just two of dozens of courses to improve your center success. Click here to view the Academy's continually expanding course catalog.

Case Study

The average US company spends $1273 per employee on training each year. The average Office Business Center spends about 10% of that on their employees. The American Society for Training and Development cite the following company benefits of a well-executed training track for employees:

* Increased job satisfaction and morale among employees
* Increased employee motivation
* Increased efficiencies in processes, resulting in financial gain
* Increased capacity to adopt new technologies and methods
* Increased innovation in strategies and products
* Reduced employee turnover
* Enhanced company image, e.g., conducting ethics training (not a good reason for ethics training!)
* Risk management, e.g., training about sexual harassment, diversity training

Are any of these areas important to you and your business? The ALLIANCE Academy offers training sessions and courses that address the relevant topics that create the most effective training track for your company's team.

Focus On...

The ALLIANCE Academy offers a wealth of complimentary items that will improve your knowledge of training and coach you into greater success at your business endeavors. We invite you to visit the Academy site at www.theALLIANCEacademy.com and click on the "Free Downloads" button on the right. This section offers unique lessons from the Masters of ALLIANCE Academy, who share their expertise and give you a taste of what you can learn as an Academy student. The current Free Downloads offered include valuable sales information and strategies that offer the best results.

The Academy's Free Downloads give just a small sample of the kind of insight and focused tips and strategies to which our students are privy. Take advantage of information that comes straight from the industry's most knowledgeable experts and check back often to get brief business and training lessons that you can use in your work.

In the Academy's tradition of offering free training to those who are eager to improve their business dealings, we will offer a free seminar on November 15th at 12PM PST. Spaces are limited, so sign up now to take advantage of this special offering. Visit http://www.theallianceacademy.com/elm to register and then contact Executive Director Susan Smith at ssmith@theallianceacademy.com or at +1 (678) 641 4467 for more information.

Insider Tips

Social tithing is a company-wide commitment at the Academy. In this spirit, Susan Smith recently facilitated at the 2007 Girls Summit offered through Girls Incorporated. Girls Inc. is a non-profit organization that inspires all girls to be strong, smart, and bold. This year's summit theme focused on Media Literacy. Susan joined a team of leaders who encouraged the 600 participating girls to examine how media messages are constructed, how these messages reflect social values, and how their active participation can influence the messages and the values.

Participating in social tithing such as this is a critical part of building your company's own culture and providing benefit to the community. Implementing a program at your business will help establish a culture based on serving others that is conducive to helping your team enhance their interpersonal and customer relations skills.

For more Insider Tips, visit the Academy site to access the Training Bytes section.