Responsiveness. Communication skills training courses, presentation skills programmes, public speaking, leadership development and executive coaching.

What's that great quote from Carrie Fisher? "Instant gratification isn't fast enough for me."

However much we might like to take time to know and understand our clients really well before we start working with them, we do do the instant stuff as well.

For instance, just recently the Corporate Customer Care Unit at Lambeth Council contacted us with a request for some work on developing their already good influencing skills.

That was on a Thursday.

They wanted the programme run on the following Monday.

It did get a bit frenetic here on the Friday, what with e-mails and phone calls whizzing back and forth between all the delegates and us, but it was exhilarating as well. To create something new at such short notice and to still tailor a programme to exactly what the client needed was immensely satisfying for all of us.

Even given the short time frame, our client didn't get something yanked off a shelf that we'd done somewhere else before. The same care went into their brief as someone who gives us a two or ten month lead – just done faster!

Sometimes instant gratification is just about fast enough.