These days many vocal business leaders are emphasizing that "the world is flat", that labor moves freely, and the lowest price wins, regardless of whether it's from Atlanta or Argentina. Million dollar purchasing orders are placed online, without so much as speaking to a live person, and when corporate communications have a face at all, it's increasingly that of a model or paid spokesperson.

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

And that one 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 human resource management nowadays.

Mental coaches might be most associated with professional sports, outdoor sales-people, or CEOs. For example, Dr. John F. Murray developed the "Mental Performance Index" for American football and helped Vincent Spadea overcome a losing streak that was one of the longest in tennis history. However, the truth is that mental coaching is relevant from the highest to the lowest rung of the corporate ladder.

In the end, if someone is worth spending tens of thousands of dollars to hire and train, doesn't it make sense allow the Human Resources department the freedom to bring out the most in him or her? If sports teams can hire mental coaches to increase their performance, so can corporate teams. Even if the labor they're coaching is fresh off the web.

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.