QuestPoint Solar Solutions

Victron Announces “Victron University” for Employee Development

Victron University is an enhanced company-wide training program for all of Victron’s employees.

FREMONT, CA — Victron, Inc., a premier electronics manufacturing services (EMS) supplier of end-to-end manufacturing solutions to Fortune 500 companies, today announced the launch of Victron University, an enhanced company-wide training program for all of its employees.

“We are very excited to begin the launch of this comprehensive training program for all of our employees,” said Marty Crow, Vice President of Manufacturing and Engineering. “We look forward to taking the base concepts of the training program even further by offering expanded coursework, on-the-job training in industry best practices, and personal and professional development. So far, the response has been very positive from our employees and they are looking forward to taking advantage of the different programs that we are offering.”

Victron developed a comprehensive curriculum addressing a wide range of professional topics and best industry practices for its employees’ professional and personal development. On-the-job training, classroom training and coursework will be provided directly to employees by Victron’s network of partners, suppliers, internal personnel and organizations.

Venture Capitalists – Are They a Necessary Evil? By Lance Winslow

Any venture capitalist you meet will be pretty high on themselves, and they will tell you they create economic activity. Of course, most entrepreneurs don’t usually have that similar view, rather they see them as a necessary evil. Are VC a necessary evil? You see, in many regards Venture Capitalists have left a bad taste in the mouths of many economic development associations, but they realize that new ventures must have funding.

The VC credibility as you remember was at an all-time low after the dot-com bubble burst. The venture funding arena does create jobs, and economic opportunity, but don’t kid yourself, the VC are out for themselves, first and foremost, like any business, they want to make money, any way they can, whatever it takes, even if they have to pull favors from here to hell and back.

Why do cities and local politicians want to support VC so much, if they are merely out to enrich themselves? Well, it’s simple, you see, when cities and economic development associations get behind business start-ups they want to support the local home-grown teams, and they want those jobs to stay there, organically grown if you will.

Nevertheless, maybe the incubator model is a better way to go? Assisting garage type start-ups with what they need and choosing the best concepts could really help with the innovation needs of each DMA, and smaller regional areas in the US. America needs to keep up with the innovative pushes in South Korea, Japan, Germany, Australia, China, India, Brazil, etc.

It appears to me that we are losing our edge, and the concept of the US becoming the “knowledge workers” of the world seems somewhat “wishful thinking” because our innovations, inventions, concepts, designs are being stolen as fast as we produce them, and those nations which copy various aspects of our free-market system, are actually doing it better than we are as we bombard it with bureaucracy, barriers to entry, and socialist-style-governance.

Soon they will be teaching us how capitalism works, and why it works. This is why we need an innovation revival and I’d say that Venture Capitalists are one vehicle, but we need to explore them all and move this ball forward as fast as possible. Please consider all this.

Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank. Lance Winslow believes it’s hard to write 20,000 articles; http://www.bloggingcontent.net/

______________________________

4 Concepts to Develop Your People

Written by Dr. Richard Norris MBA

There is a difference between professional development and people development. Organizations need to have a people development strategy. Initially, they need to consider the 4 Concepts of People Development.

In a tough economy now is the time to develop your people. So …

What is your people development strategy?
Notice it is not professional development but people development.

Professional development sees a person in only one dimension – their job. People development looks at that same person as a whole – a sum of specific roles e.g. mother, partner, SVP, PTA and Brownie leader. Ignoring the other roles jeopardizes individual, team and organizational performance and adversely impacts staff retention, costs, profits etc.

People come to work with all their roles. For some, those roles bring with them issues, challenges and distractions. These can adversely affect performance not only for the individual but also across the organization.

To develop your people to their fullest potential and thereby enhance their performance and maximize your ROI, your strategy must be holistic with a role-specific approach. It must encompass the 4 Concepts of People Development™:

The Big Picture

Raise the importance of having a role-specific Big Picture and how it is applied in terms of individual, team and company development.

Peak Performance

Identify what peak performance looks like, thinks like, feels like and behaves like. Establish what Competence, Commitment and the ability to Communicate is requiredand how that is orchestrated by what and how we think.

The Path to Peak Performance

Establish where your organization is on your path. Determine what is holding you back and what needs to be done to overcome those hindrances. Only then can the Peak Performance concept be fully applied.

The 4 Phases of Role-Specific Development

Establish an awareness of the phases you develop through – Hope to Belief to Knowing to Mystery, where you are as an organization right now and where you need to develop your people in order to enhance performance and attract and achieve growth and results.

Investing in and implementing these 4 Concepts through your people development strategy will always enhance performance and attract the best people – after all people like to know they are valued. Additionally, these can also be applied across each person’s life roles so you also create sustainable synergy across all roles. A further key benefit is that you also gain market share over your competition because you value your greatest asset – your people – who are to be protected and invested in to ensure the greatest return.

So create your people development strategy. Your future depends on it!

Dr Richard Norris MBA

Head of Global Development

Lifestyle Architecture

richardnorris@lifestylerchitecture.com

Office: +44 1738 827813

Cell: +44 7786 393110
Copyright 2009

_________________________________

Building a Training Culture

Bill Hoopes

I direct this article toward small businesses that want to develop a training culture, create or access and deliver programs that maximize productivity and profit.

Two facts are important.  First, untrained people typically fail or, at best, under-perform.  Their mistakes and omissions lower your service level, damage your image in the marketplace and eventually, cost you money.  Second, if you don’t devote significant time and resources to building and administering a serious teaching program, building staff skills isn’t easy.  So, we have a need to train and a challenge in making it happen.

Below are some practical suggestions that will enable the smallest business to train more effectively.

· Designate someone who cares.  Training is a management responsibility.  Still, managers may not always be available to deliver training.  Rather than try and fail because you are too busy, delegate. Use training as a development tool for your most quality oriented team member.  Choose someone who shares you beliefs about doing the job right.  While this is the person who will build your training program, he/she need not be an expert.  Most of the info you’ll need is readily available.  Your ‘trainer’ must focus equally on task completion and on the people who make it happen. Effective and enthusiastic communication is mandatory.  Select the trainer accordingly.

· Organize topics in ‘need to know’ sequence.  Limit initial training objectives.  Begin with the job description.  What is it the employee must know or be able to do first?  Begin your training there.  Teaching in a logical need-to-know sequence, according to job requirements, will improve retention of the information and make more sense on the job.  Information I’ll call “nice to know”, while often more interesting to the trainer, tends to reduce clarity for new people and can be confusing.  Trainees must understand what is important now.

· Plan training in ‘small bites’.  Spend some initial development time re-formatting important but often boring information.  Emphasize most important points and critical knowledge in concise, easy to understand ‘bites’ or learning modules.  New hires cannot and will not absorb extensive information.  Initial training should allow the new hire to begin successfully, accomplishing small tasks, one at a time. Do not attempt to create a subject matter expert in a week or two.  Not only is limited ‘small bite’ training easier to absorb and translate to behavior on the job, it is easier for a new trainer to create and deliver.

· Use available and inexpensive resources.  In today’s “green industry”, whether your business is focused on design and build, maintenance, landscape or lawn care, the information you need is out there.  One of the first tasks for your new ‘trainer’ should be to network with established and respected companies and trainers in the industry.  Take advantage of the work others have done to pull together necessary information.  You will find most of us are ready to help.  Here are other great resources:

*Pesticide safety/use topics – OSHA website and state extension services.

*Environmental stewardshop – EPA websites [federal and state]

*Driver safety – National safety council, local/state police and for profit training producers [“Google” the topic, you’ll be amazed at the choices available].

*Equipment and product use – Manufacturers provide this info in video and written form.

*Plant/pest relationships – Your state extension service is a great resource and all information is free!

*Sales/customer service – “Train the Trainer” seminars can equip your trainer to deliver these topics. Programs are available and can be customized to your needs.

_________________________________________________

Eco Institution Releases New “Green Consultant” Online Training Course

Enhanced program aimed at fulfilling mandate for a national energy-efficiency workforce
cited by a recent White House Task Force

LISTEN to Course Designer KEVIN HOPKINS interview with > QUESTPOINT HERE

SAN DIEGO—The Eco Institution, a San Diego-based environmental education and training firm, today announced the release of a new and enhanced “Green Consultant” certification and training course. The new online course is intended to make it easier than ever before for home-service professionals and other interested individuals to become Certified Green Consultants, and thereafter to deliver “Green Consulting” services to homeowners, businesses, and organizations in their neighborhoods and communities.

The new course builds on and replaces the Eco Institution’s initial Eco Consultant Certification course, which has been offered since early summer. The new course presents more detailed and advanced training content than was included in the original course, and focuses exclusively on strategies for reducing energy use, water use, and utility costs in homes and workplaces. The release of the enhanced course could not be timed more appropriately, as it responds directly to a recent call by the White House “Recovery Through Retrofit” Middle Class Task Force for greatly accelerated training of environmental professionals. The October 2009 report noted that “there are currently not enough skilled workers and green entrepreneurs to expand weatherization and efficiency retrofit programs on a national scale.”

“In recent months, our nation’s mission has become clear,” Kevin R. Hopkins, the course’s co-author, declared upon announcing the new training program. “Energy- and water-conservation efforts will succeed only if they are implemented and driven at the local level. But to achieve that goal, we literally need an ‘army of Green Consultants’ to visit the millions of homes and workplaces in America, and to help their occupants to save energy and water in the most effective and lasting ways possible.

“As a nation, we certainly have the ideas and initiative that this vital objective demands,” emphasized Mr. Hopkins, a Business Week contributing editor who also served as an economic, energy, and environmental advisor in the Reagan White House. “But now we need one thing more: we need the talent. We need people in every neighborhood and in every community in America who possess the knowledge and skills to bring this goal about. And that is exactly what the Eco Institution’s new Certified Green Consultant Course will provide.”

Responding to the White House Mandate

The new Certified Green Consultant Course has been designed and written to fully comply with the training parameters set forth in the White House’s “Recovery Through Retrofit” overview document. The Presidential report noted that “making American homes and buildings more energy-efficient presents an unprecedented opportunity for communities throughout the country… Home retrofits can potentially help people earn money, as home retrofit workers, while also helping them save money, by lowering their utility bills. By encouraging nationwide weatherization of homes, workers of all skill levels will be trained, engaged, and will participate in ramping up a national home retrofit market.”

The report went on to describe in detail the dimensions of the challenge—and the corresponding opportunity—that is facing the nation. “There are almost 130 million homes in this country,” the report observed. “Combined, they generate more than 20% of our nation’s carbon dioxide emissions, making them a significant contributor to global climate change. Existing techniques and technologies in energy efficiency retrofitting can reduce home energy use by up to 40% per home and lower associated greenhouse gas emissions by up to 160 million metric tons annually by the year 2020. Furthermore, home energy-efficiency retrofits have the potential to reduce home energy bills by $21 billion annually, paying for themselves over time.”

The “Recovery Through Retrofit” initiative, which the White House will make more specific in coming months, also will include new national energy-efficiency standards for existing homes along with a program to expand the availability of so-called “green mortgages.” But the training-standards component remains a key centerpiece. “By implementing Recovery Through Retrofit’s recommendations,” the report concluded, “the Federal Government will lay the groundwork for a self-sustaining home energy-efficiency retrofit industry. This report provides a roadmap of how the Federal Government can use existing authorities and funds to unlock private capital and mobilize our communities.”

Saving Green by Living Green

Mr. Hopkins applauded the government’s efforts, noting that it was the key “missing piece” in the nation’s commitment to environmental protection and wiser energy use. “Homeowners and businesses in the United States and elsewhere have long been supportive of environmental initiatives, but have been frustrated by a lack of both knowledge and opportunities for living and operating in a more environmentally responsible fashion,” he said. “But thanks to the emerging Green Consultant profession, local residents and business owners can begin to really make a difference—right in their own neighborhoods and communities.”

That difference they can make means more than just doing a “good deed” for the planet. It also can translate into saving money. Indeed, the Eco Institution emphasizes that, in the difficult economy that has battered the United States and others developed countries in recent years, consumers and small businesses are more interested than ever before in saving money wherever they can—and that planetary consciousness needs to follow suit.

“It’s easy for someone who is passionate about protecting the environment to say that cost doesn’t matter,” says Mr. Hopkins. “And in the larger sense, maybe it doesn’t. But environmental protection and planetary preservation depend on people’s actually taking action. And like it or not, most people today—no matter how committed to the environment they might be—simply don’t have the thousands of extra dollars required to purchase a new hybrid car or to line their rooftops with pricey solar panels.”

With that fact in mind, the Eco Institution focuses its training efforts on helping future Green Consultants to demonstrate to their clients how “living green” and “saving green” go together. By undertaking simple, relatively inexpensive steps—from wiser usage of lighting, heating, cooling, and water to improved insulation and replacement of old appliances—some families can save up to $2,000 or more each year through the adoption of green-living practices, and many businesses can save much more. In addition, U.S. Federal tax credits for energy-efficient structural additions can save taxpayers up to an additional $1,500 in the coming tax year.

A Powerful New Approach to Energy- and Water-Efficiency

The Eco Institution’s Certified Green Consultant Training Course is aimed at both existing home-service professionals—ranging from real estate agents and home inspectors to interior designers, electricians, and plumbers—seeking to add a new line of business to their current professional practices, as well as other individuals (including career-changes, underemployed professionals, and local entrepreneurs) looking to generate extra income and to establish a foothold in a solid and promising next-generation career.

The Certified Green Consultant Course, which was co-authored by veteran energy executive Michelle L. Hopkins, is designed to be a no-nonsense “nuts and bolts” training guide for cost-efficiently saving energy and water at home and work. At the same time, the course (and the Eco Institution’s approach to “Green Consulting” in general) goes far beyond the more formulaic “energy audits” traditionally offered by utility companies and earlier-generation environmental training programs. “The Eco Institution’s new course will help Certified Green Consultants to become ‘trusted counselors’ to their residential and commercial clients, and to help guide them through the maze of technical and legal complexities that surround the practice of energy-efficiency and retrofitting,” Ms. Hopkins explained.

Ms. Hopkins previously served for 17 years in various senior executive capacities with Pacific Enterprises/Southern California Gas Company (now Sempra Energy), one of the nation’s largest energy utilities. Working closely with the company’s award-winning energy-auditing program, she witnessed first-hand how much more effective “trusted energy counselors” were in the field than were the more traditional checklist-driven energy auditors. “Whenever clients needed help in dealing with energy-efficiency or retrofitting issues, our people were always the ‘first call.’ We hope to create the same, powerful dynamic with this new generation of Eco Institution-trained Green Consultants.”

A Rich Course Curriculum

The Eco Institution’s Certified Green Consultant Training Course covers the full range of topics necessary for future Green Consultants to become locally recognized experts in residential and commercial energy- and water-efficiency. Among the topics covered by the 17-unit online course are:

Green Consulting as a profession
The residential ecosystem
Residential heating and cooling systems
Insulation and thermostats
Windows and doors
Household appliances and electronics
Water use and water heating
Energy-efficient lighting solutions
Alternative-energy options, including solar and wind
Green home design principles
Energy and water use in the workplace
Workplace-based recycling practices
Conducting Green Home and Green Workplace surveys
Marketing and selling Green Consulting services
Publishing and promoting Green Consulting services
Promoting Green Consulting services online

The Eco Institution’s Green Consultant certification process has been designed for maximum flexibility and adaptability to the needs of individual Green Consultant trainees. Taking advantage of the latest in web-based training technologies, the Certified Green Consultant Training Course is available online, and can be studied at the student’s own pace and on his or her own schedule. Each of the introductory course’s 17 units includes a detailed, easy-to-read text-based lesson, and is accompanied by email-based access to a professional Green Consulting Coach who will guide students through both the substantive and practical aspects of setting up and building their Green Consulting practice.

The Certified Green Consultant Training Course also includes a professionally designed business “Start Up Kit” intended to help Green Consultants to rapidly build their professional practices. Among the Kit’s more than two dozen components are a suite of home consulting, workplace consulting, and marketing and promotion tools that will enable Green Consultants to focus more time on the vital matters of client service and follow-up and less on the rote mechanics of running a business. The centerpiece of the Start Up Kit are comprehensive Green Home Survey and Green Workplace Surveys and Reports, that will enable Green Consultants to review homes and workplaces and to deliver their findings in a cost-efficient and consistent manner.

The Eco Institution operates its Green Consultant credentialing program as an educational and training network and not as a franchise. Specifically, the Eco Institution sets no fee structures that its trained and certified Green Consultants are required to charge and makes no guarantees of any specific income stream (although many Green Consultants and Eco Consultants currently earn from $100 to $400 per home or business survey, and several hundred dollars or more from follow-on work with the same client). Additionally, Green Consultants choose their company’s own name and location, set their own hours, and determine which specific services they will offer and how much they will charge. There are also no sales territories or sales quotas.  Eco Institution-trained Green Consultants keep 100% of whatever they earn from clients, and do not have to pay a “sales commission” or licensing fee to the Eco Institution for ongoing use of Eco Institution materials.

Signing Up for the Eco Consultant Certification Course

Signing up for the Eco Institution’s Certified Green Consultant Training Course is a simple and straightforward matter. Interested individuals should visit the Eco Institution’s Green Consultant web site at  HYPERLINK “http://www.greenconsultant.com” www.greenconsultant.com. Alternatively, students may telephone the Eco Institution directly at (877) 235-3170

For more information regarding this release, please contact Kevin Hopkins at  HYPERLINK “mailto:media@ecoinstitution.com” media@ecoinstitution.com.

_____________________________________

QuestPoint represents of Rich Hessler Solar Sales Training. An innovative live Webinar based solar sales training program that’s so convenient and effective it can be taken from anywhere you have a phone and a computer.

The Solar Sales course is a comprehensive “Live online webinar” designed to meet the needs of busy career seekers and the fast developing solar and renewable energy field. Are you a sales professional, contractor, real estate person or someone truly seeking a career where you can make a difference? Then solar sales training can be your answer.

Solar Sales Training Recorded Preview

The pulse of today is…green tech, clean tech, eco friendly renewable energy, including solar is poised for tremendous growth! Highly effective and timely this “Live online solar sales training course” is well-documented for your reference. It gives you what you need to know quickly and easily. After this solar sales course you will have the skills and tools to do a solar estimate and a quality solar presentation that sets you up for the close. Plus when you sign up with us you’ll also get a free career tune up with Search veteran and QuestPoint’s Founder, Richard Andrews.

Call 415 – 568-2202

______________________________