The capitalism of the 1980s gave service to others a bad name. Obsessively self-serving, it tried to teach us that business and leadership were all about looking after number one, and that everything else would follow from that.
But if the past decade has taught us anything it’s that such self-centered practices, while undoubtedly still prevalent in some businesses, can be as crippling to the people who follow them as to those they prey on. … Read More»
It’s all too easy to forget the human side of business. We get so bogged down in the processes and procedures, the board meetings and balance sheets, that we forget that business doesn’t exist for its own sake. Business is about human beings. It was invented to serve human beings. It employs human beings. It rewards, develops and sadly sometimes discards human beings. And any business has an impact on the human beings all around it…. Read More»
You already have the ingredients to make your company far more powerful. You might not realize it, but there is something in the makeup of your company that a strong, dynamic culture can be built around. Something that can focus your whole organization on its prime purpose.
The key is identifying that thing…. Read More»
Making your business more human and more personal is vital to success. Customers have a more pleasant experience interacting with real people with real personalities. Employees are more satisfied if they feel like individuals rather than cogs in a machine. This creates loyalty, the willingness of both customers and colleagues to stick around when prices rise or you struggle to raise wages.
But how do you get that right?… Read More»
All business has a human side. Part of it is the obvious one – human resources. Part of it is the fundamental one – customers. Part of it is what makes work satisfying rather than draining – acting like a human being.
The human side of business isn’t easy. It can be difficult to get right and is sometimes emotionally gruelling. But those difficulties are a challenge that we have to rise to, and sometimes they’re what makes the human side worthwhile…. Read More»
For the last few decades we’ve become increasingly trapped in thinking of business as all about profit. That has become the driving purpose of most businesses, with all other considerations being trampled by concerns for cold hard cash.
But there’s a better way to do business. Better from the human side. Better from the customer side. And as it turns out, better from the profit side as well…. Read More»
The way we understand society has the power to change it, whether through debate, public policy, or the behavior of individual citizen-consumers. This is as true of our motives and values as it is of anything else…. Read More»
It’s easy to focus on the negative side of workplace morale. The problem of poor morale is such a common one that it’s become a major point of discussion for managers and executives across the economy. But this focus on the problem in itself brings us down. After all, if you’re busy trying to solve the negatives then you aren’t drawing attention to and celebrating the positives.
So how can you get this right? How can you pull out of the negative spiral?… Read More»
In his poem If, Rudyard Kipling described the qualities that would set a person up for success. While the tone of Kipling’s poem might be a little out of place in a modern, egalitarian age, it highlights many fine qualities, not least the benefits of a healthy perspective on failure and success.
What If doesn’t do is to point out the seeds of those qualities already lying within us all…. Read More»
Those working in business, steeped in the depths of economics and the logic born by Adam Smith, like to think that we look at the world through more enlightened eyes. We see invisible chains of cause and effect all around us, built on supply and demand.
But there are hidden hands suggested by other fields of study, like the theory of evolution.
… Read More»
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