Recycled Bullsh-IT

Most organisations, large and small, state at some time and with varying degrees of fanfare that they are a people business. It can be difficult to take a lot of these claims seriously, particularly in a society with an open press and flourishing social media outlets that allow staff to give their side of the story. All too often this statement is seen as either vacuous or cynical, given the innate truism of the assertion.

Traditional management thinking is that the priorities of a business are a balance between meeting the needs of the customers, shareholders, and staff – the main debate being in which order you serve them. Historically there has been a changing emphasis here, particularly on explicit company (read marketing) statements. Initially the shareholder was king, with shareholder value seen as the single focus for businesses. This approach is currently being blamed for the world’s economic troubles and is seen as short term and non-sustainable.

 We have been through a prolonged period where the ‘Customer is King’ mantra (unlike my Customer is ‘king Furious post) has become the norm for identifying where the business should concentrate. In many cases this has transformed the performance of the business, particularly those that had traditionally held their customers in contempt. We know who you are. However, there have been numerous examples where this has led to increasingly diminishing returns. Some of the recent customer service books and conferences have focused on the Moment of Truth of customer interaction, where the goal is deemed to be a Moment of Magic where the business exceeds the customer expectation to such an extent that the customer is eternally grateful and will convince all they know to do business with you.

 It now appears that this was a bit excessive in that most customers just want a competent service with no hassles – anything else being seen as over the top. It is also extremely expensive to continually over-deliver.

  A number of companies have always put their employees first, believing that happy and motivated staff will deliver better results through improving and correcting quality themselves and passing on their good will to the customers who will respond with more business. This has been picked up by more traditional companies looking for an angle to position themselves, rather than any specific desire to please their employees. Or they did up until March 2020… However, without a genuine commitment to improve the lot of their staff it is unlikely that this initiative will succeed.

  In the current difficult times, many of these newly converted have reverted to form and started treating people as disposable as other business resources or assets (Human Capital Management, anyone?).

   Of course, there is no single focus for all organisations. A balance is required to meet the needs of stakeholders, customers, AND staff; the relative emphasis will be unique for most businesses. Finding this balance is not always easy, but knowing you need to find it is the first step to achieving it.

 Of course if your staff and customers are mainly younger generation, you also need to big up your Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) prominence too, otherwise you’ll be blamed for all the planet’s woes and be heading for extinction like the industrial dinosaur you really are. So, squeeze into your vegan jeans, hop on your electric scooter and patronise get down with the kids!

John “I’m a Purple People Person” Moe