The Best Solution

Today I was reading about local companies and public statements that were made with regards to their hiring practices domestically and abroad. This caused me to reflect about the particular company and my experience as an employee of that company. Once I started down the path of visiting thoughts concerning my previous employers I became aware of a simple truth. The very best solution isn’t always the best solution.

What I’m getting at here is that sometimes I think individuals and companies make a decision based upon one factor and usually that one factor is money. Admittedly, businesses need money to run. But should money be the largest factor that influences their decisions? When I ask if money should be the largest factor I’m implying that money could be a board of directors, labor costs or geographic operating costs. It sure seems like every company I read about makes their decisions based upon one of those manifestations of money.

When you have companies that make all their decisions based upon money I think you really need to start wondering about the longevity of the company. It’s only a matter of time before the share holders bankrupt the company with their greed or they sell the company to make a huge one-time profit (Anyone remember Albertsons?). American business is struggling and in my opinion, American big business is gasping for air. Why? Because they’ve let profit become more important to them than the employees who generate the profit. Once employees realize they are a resource to be utterly consumed for any purpose deemed useful by the company a feeling of apathy ripples through the employees. This apathy when combined with greed from the top slowly kills a company. How can an automobile stay on the road when the owner puts the least expensive parts it can find into the car and only cares about the cars well being when performance is affected? The car will not be on the road for long and the owner will jump from automobile to automobile. It may make sense at the time for the owner to save costs by not getting a service every 30,000 miles. It may make sense for the owner to replace factory parts with inexpensive imitation parts. It may make sense for the owner to have all repairs done by the least expensive mechanic it can find. All of these appear to be the very best decision from the owners perspective which is shaped by money.

If the owner were more long sited then the owner would understand that their actions and decisions to neglect the car will ultimately result in shortening the cars life span and costing them more money as they continue to roll over into newer cars. American big business is the same way. American corporations now neglect the car and base every decision on cost and making a board of directors rich. You’ve witnessed a massive drop in American innovation and strength over the last 30 years because companies diverged away from concepts like “The HP Way” an idea fostered by Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard towards greed. I’m not even going to attempt to describe “The HP Way” here. It’s worthy of an entire book and I believe books have been written regarding “The HP Way” and the vision of it’s founders.

When companies held strongly to their employees, family values and notions such as “The HP Way” they were unstoppable. Companies holding to such ideas grew fantastically and achieved success beyond any one’s wildest dreams. But in time the visions of the entrepreneurs were replaced by the pockets of shareholders and as the founders retired and died off the company started to follow.

If companies want to cut cost and become competitive again I suggest they start by firing the shareholders. Companies need to put their very best back into the only resource they have control of and that’s the employees. Once businesses start to reward innovation and value their labor they will find that success will not be far behind. I’d argue that a company like Hewlett Packard or Micron could make a huge turn-around in under 3 years if they simply reversed the value systems that directed the company.

Instead shareholders think managing money is the very best decision a company can make. I think that the best decision is managing your employees and cultivating innovation. It’s a very sad day for American business I’m afraid but the real tragedy is in what is happening to the American families that used to fuel the innovation driving American business.

Companies need to rethink solutions and decisions and realize that what seems like the best decision for the shareholders is the worst decision for the company.