Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

With the focus on external threats like global competition, worker shortages and lack of highly skilled younger workers, a lot of companies are neglecting their own people as the answer to a lot of their problems.

The real problem, according to Lowell Bryan, a senior partner at McKinsey and Co., isn't the inability of human resources departments to recruit good people, it's the undervaluing of your existing people within the company.

According to a recent Harvard Business Review article, companies can lose hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue because they don't have the right, trained people in place, ready to take advantage of them.

A 12-month survey of 700 U.S. businesses by Bersin and Associates found the major challenges facing them were missing links in leadership, developing a culture based on performance, and filling important positions.

Over 80 percent of those responding said developing leaders was the key need. Almost 70 percent said leading executives and managers should take up the responsibility, not the Human Resources department.

Those companies that already do this, will have all their leaders committed to the process and people, and will integrate training their people in conjunction with strategic planning.

What all this comes down to is taking care of our people. It will become increasingly important to have a powerful training focus within our companies, as the external forces pressure those companies which don't have their existing people considered their No. 1 resource.

Those that have this attitude and respond in practical ways, will definitely have a competitive advantage in the years ahead.