Creating a sustainable competitive advantage through training

The article examines how customer needs are represented within the training evaluation framework of an organisation. The authors assert that meeting customer needs on time, every time, is a route to achieving and sustaining competitive advantage, and training is a tool that organisations should use to succeed at this. Information on good practice from the National Training Awards case studies was used as the basis of the research. The authors conclude that customers’ needs/wants are often not given the attention they deserve but that there is the potential for enhancing practice. Two gaps in the evaluation process are revealed: the ability to relate customer satisfaction to organisational aims and the ability to recognise the behavioural changes necessary to achieve these aims. The authors speculate that successful outcomes are most likely to be achieved if case‐study material is analysed rigorously, if outcomes are carefully articulated, if a range of measurement opportunities are employed and if managers are closely involved in action research processes.