ABSTRACT
A couple of years ago, my job required me to purchase training courses in communication and leadership for a multinational firm. These courses were purchased by the head office and then offered to employees in many different countries so that they could improve their interpersonal skills and their personal effectiveness. In discussions with suppliers who were eager to sell their training courses to us, I often found them annoying. To me, they seemed quite unprofessional and had hardly anything concrete to offer. I was irritated by their lengthy stories, their abstract views on learning, their strategic arguments about the courses being for our own good, etc. To me, the limit was the fact that they were lost whenever I asked about the exact price of one of their training courses, the number of people per group, or the agenda for the second afternoon of the course.
