Corporate phrase: “Investment resource”

Explanation:

An “Investment resource” is somebody that does not bring anything obvious to the team. But you’re willing to give them a go in the hope that they do. They are in contrast to an S.M.E. (Subject Matter Expert), who brings something very obvious to help, be that technology, Business experience or something like that.

An “Investment resource” is a nice way of saying they need help to get up and running. the team are going to have to spend time and effort on the resource that will be taken away from delivering on the project. But are doing it in the hope that they will actually come up with something useful and long term, and will give back more than you require, so will be worth it.

The positive use of it is with graduates who are learning and just need some coaching, but it is also used for an external contractor who doesn’t quite have the skill sets you need, but is jammed in as a warm body in the hope that they will get the job done (make sure you get a discount on them if a consultancy tries this) and lastly it is sometimes used with senior people who just want to be in on the cool thing, take up the teams time with meetings and confuse things by taking credit.

“The value of your investments can go down as well as up”

Disclaimer: As always these posts are not aimed at anyone client or employer and are just my personal observations over a lifetime of dealing with both management and frontline associates.

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