Infusions of cash and capital will come as consumer/investor confidence recovers, but what measures will you take to revitalize morale and an environment of trust within your company? The economy’s damage to your bottom line seems obvious enough. What about the damage to employees’ relationships with their leaders and coworkers?
Recession’s Lessons: The Upside of Downturns
Companies that learn from economic crises will emerge stronger and better-positioned as industry leaders.
Picking Up the Pieces: Emerge as a Redesigned Organization
When world economies rebound from this recessionary beating, will your company be positioned to set full-sail into the upturn’s prosperous winds? On world, national, and enterprise levels, financial medics have repeatedly defibrillated the sources of lifeblood for economic health. As consumers and investors express progressive confidence in these measures and contraction turns to expansion, we’ll all take stock to see which companies made the cut.
Humans Are Not Capital
Some business owners, leaders and managers have denigrated the value of people by referring to them as expendable assets instead of contributing individuals. While the denotation of “human capital” remains innocent enough, the term’s connotation echoes master-servant ideology.
Consider how terminology referring to people in the workplace fluctuates between various levels of respect:
Unruly Group to a Team
I have just been promoted in my company and am now running a unit that has become known for a history of problems working as a team and with other divisions. There are a number of bright, creative but strong-willed employees. My bosses have told me it is a priority to get this division working more effectively together. Where do I begin? How do I get this group on track?
Why Redesign?
Stephen Wozniak and Steve Jobs started Apple Computer Corp. in the latter’s garage, of all places, hocking personal items to capitalize their budding company. Now, the iconic organization employs over 35,000 people worldwide. Pierre Omidyar hired his first employee for what would become eBay in 1996. The company not only weathered the dot-com bust, it enjoyed remarkable profitability under Meg Whitman’s leadership. Yet, explosive growth is often messy.
As companies mature – especially those that mature quickly – unnecessary bloat often masks as necessary expansion. Some divisions metastasize. Executive titles proliferate and generate a top-heavy (often heavy-handed) corporate culture. The structure becomes unsustainable, illogical, and inefficient. Objective intervention must reverse the existential threat to your organization.
