Many thanks to all those who entered the Christmas Competition. The clear winner was Peter Davies, who was inspired to write the following:
"As I work for a Cancer Charity then my serious head says that Santa should undertake some kind of dietary awareness training, and to point out that dried fruit in the mince pies and the fact that sherry is made form grapes do not count as part of his five a day. However, if he ate Rudolph's carrot then he'd be part way there.
"My less serious head says...
Just how long ago did he take his driving test? certainly should be a risk assessment done due to his high mileage (approx 356m km in just over 6 hours) and therefore also his speed awareness as well. And how exactly does he get his Reindeer MOT'd? A spot of advanced driver training is called for before (and I nicked this one) someone ends up getting sleighed!
"In these litigation filled days I wonder whether he should have some kind of training in trading standards or the legalities of verbal and written contracts. Do parents actually legally represent Santa when affirming that a letter to him will secure gifts? And therefore who is liable should said gift not appear under the tree? Will we see the rise of the 'no gift. no fee' culture?
"And finally he might want to look into the noise abatement problems associated with his journey. to effectively carry out his mission he would need to travel at roughly 6,000 times the speed of sound, and therefore after each stop (approx 842m chimneys) would effect an immediate sonic boom. This would surely come under noise abatement and could land Santa with an ASBO. Again, risk assessment rears its ugly head."
Tina Crossnan and Steve Skarratt were the runners up.
Tina's suggestion was: "I think Santa’s reindeers could be in need of a refresher in diversity training and Bullying and Harassment in the workplace considering the treatment of Rudolph (all of the other reindeers use to laugh and call him names)."
While Steve Skarratt's contribution was: "Clearly there is a need for some strategic level training in both developing a coherent vision and marketing so that the vision can be communicated effectively. At present there seems to be an inverse proportional relationship between the age of Santa's target market and their capacity to believe in the vision."
Peter Davies wins a copy of Balance Learning's Effective Email software; Tina Crossnan wins a copy of Meeting Magic, a Practical Guide for Managers who want to make their Meetings Productive by Katherine Woods and Ingrid Uden
and Steve Skarratt wins 54 Tools & Techniques for Business Excellence, by Michael Wash.
