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Business leaders now claim that geography is now irrelevant to their activities. Labor migrates freely, good do as well, and thus the lowest price for any good or service wins no matter where the bid comes from. Companies now spend millions on single orders over the internet, without a single person-to-person conversation. The only voices associated with most companies now are those of paid spokespeople and actors.

At a time when posting a job opening online will get you applications from around the world, are people skills even relevant? The answer is a resounding "yes": at the end of the day, someone is still designing the products, the web sites, and the materials for marketing.

And that person needs a proper environment in which to perform his or her job, not "even if" but "especially if" that person was born and raised somewhere else. Immigrants and guest workers are as much members of the corporate world as anyone else, but their special issues and hardships need close attention to bring out the most in them, and that means mental coaching. Mental coaching is an excellent way of bringing someone from a different culture into the team 100%, and it is one of the most important functions of today's human resource management.

While mental coaches, such as Dr. John F. Murray, who developed "Mental Performance Index" for American football (and proceeded to help Vincent Spadea overcome a losing streak that was one of the longest in the history of tennis), might be associated with professional sports, outdoor sales-people, or CEO's, the truth is that mental coaching is relevant from the highest to the lowest rung of the corporate ladder.

Hiring and training employees is a costly endeavor, so any steps that can be taken to improve employee work product is essential. In today's world, many companies are finding that Mental coaches are well worth the investment. They have already proven effective in many fields other than business. So why not maximize your investment in your company's personnel and let your Human Resources department try this great resource.

While the world can well be flat, it is still populated with human beings, and human beings don't perform at their peak potential without training and smart management. Companies are made up of people -- something that is as true during the reign of Bill Gates as it was during that of Rockefeller, despite the Internet.