In my experience, many can't see the value of spending money up front to save money in the long run. For example, paying a fairly high monthly price for phone lines and slow Internet. To migrate to cheaper lines and faster Internet will require some expenditure but the payback will be about 9 months and then it's pure profit but many businesses simply see that they will have to spend moneyand don't proceed - yet continue to periodically complain about how much they are paying every month.

Very similar in the learning and development space.  Businesses tend to ignore the cost of 'issues' or 'problems' with their people.  To deliver a development program to deal with poor leadership or sales skills or any number of performance issues costs less than keeping the problem.

For example, poor leadership may lead to losing a team member.  That costs between 50% and 150% of their leaving salary to replace them.  Lets say Julie leaves because of a poor manager.  She is paid $60,000.  It can cost at a minimum $30,000 to replace her.  Delivering a decent leadership development workshop would cost less than half that - for several managers, not just one.

Another example is poor performance by an individual.  Or an individual who is casuing problems with colleagues.  If a manager has to deal with that performance or issue, it can take hours of management time.  Multiply the hours by the managers hourly rate.  Add that to the same multiplyer for the employee.  Soon adds up.  Businesses do not have a line for that in their budget.  They see the cost of training as a static cost rather than a way to look at return on investment.

Would love to hear your thoughts @Marc Shaffer @Malcolm Dawes @Lisa Creffield