A Company's Most Valuable Asset

The most valuable asset for any company are its employees
Without the employees a company could not be where it is today.  The employees no mater the job all have a roll in the company and its success or failure.  With the current economic downturn many companies are neglecting the most valuable asset to ensure a profit.  As a business student I understand the occasional need for cutbacks.  As mentioned in When is it Time to Change the Status Quo blog post "There is no perfect business, formula, or strategy each and everyone can be improved and refined" There is not a perfect business with 100% efficiency and they all can be improved, so instead of resorting to layoffs and cutbacks first look for ways to improve efficiency.  Or invest in your employees, happy, motivated employees are more productive and efficient.  To make the employees content and motivated might not cost anything, employees care about more than just money.  I highly recommend that you watch this video by RSA Animate Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us and the other RSA Animate videos.

Treat your employees right and enjoy the rewards
The best employees are the motivated employees, so as a company you need to find a way to motivate them.  Google recently gave its employees a bonus and a raise to keep them happy and motivated.   If you watch Undercover Boss on CBS they show examples of the best employees who are motivated and who might also have a touching story.  Those are the individuals companies want to employ.  A motivated employee takes pride in what they are doing and understand their importance in the company AND the company understands the employees importance.  The difference between a motivated employee and an unmotivated or disgruntled employee is clear.  The difference is even clearer in the areas of customer service and quality control.  A motivated employee takes the time and effort for the customers behalf not their own.


Not all employees are right for your company
A company is like a machine it is made up of a lot of parts (people) and they all have their place.  If a individual does not fit in where they currently are or is not motivated the machine will not run efficiently.  The part is either in the wrong place or doesn't belong in the machine.  Don't force the part into the machine if it doesn't fit, it will damage the part and maybe the machine.  If the person doesn't fit or isn't motivated to do a proper job then their boss and the company needs to find a way to motivate them so they do or find someone who will.  The departments of Customer Service and to some extent areas that need quality control have high turnover rates.  Those employees no longer fit in the machine.  Once one part goes bad it starts to effect the rest of the parts in the machine.  Either repair or replace that part those are the only two options the company has.

What do you think are the most valuable asset?  How do you make sure to keep employees motivated?  Do you notice a difference between motivated employees and non-motivated employees when you deal with customer service or other areas?  

Staying with the Times

This is a follow up post to When is it Time to Change the Status Quo? 

Best Buy understands the need to stay with the times and move towards selling digital so they are able to remain as an industry leader.  They also have a great understanding of social media and its importance, that is why they are one of the leading companies on social media.  There are numerous case studies available to show how Best Buy is staying current and understands the changes that are occurring in its industry and the consumers shift towards digital. One of the better ones I have found is from case studies online which has numerous case studies available.  


Another company trying to shift towards digital is Blockbuster, but it seems they have waited too long to keep up with the new competition.  They have waited until it was "broken" and needed to be fixed where Best Buy started the transition early in the digital life cycle.  


Many other industries are also seeing the need to stay with the times, while it might not be the shift towards digital.  If you are not able to stay current with the times or the industry you will face problems similar to Blockbuster.  


When should or do you make a change to how you or your company operates? Any other companies that you think are great example of staying with the times?  Any other consumer shifts occurring that could pose problems to an industry?

Photo Credit to Big C Harvey

When is it Time to Change the Status Quo?

This post focuses on only one aspect of business, change or the need for change with the introduction of social media.  Change is a difficult decision because a majority of people do not like change.  A lot of businesses are changing their approach in reaching customers and are venturing out into new social media markets.  While others are weary of this change and keep doing the same thing.  There are three contradicting approaches to businesses.

The first is don't fix what isn't broken; keep doing the same thing until it no longer works.  These are the businesses who have steady sales and wait to change something until they need to.  This is a dangerous approach where you are waiting for something to go wrong before you fix it.  Instead of repairing a small leak they wait until it bursts and turns into a flood.

The second approach is stay with the times; do what the other businesses are doing.  Once your competitor(s) is successful on Twitter or Facebook you join in social media as well.  With this approach you remain close to the competition but always a step behind.  That wait gives you the extra time to see how the new strategy is working for the competition so you can adopt their strategy, alter it, or ignore it.

The third approach is to be a trend-setter and a first mover.  This approach is being the first to get and use the latest technology or strategy.  They might be unproven and risky but that extra risk may hold a great reward.  By being the first mover you will have a step up on the competition, one in which they might never catch up.  With this or any approach it is important to not only adopt the new (social media) tools but to stay current with the changes and evolution of those tools.

So which approach works best, that will depend on your industry and companies preference.  Each approach has its pros and cons, some more than others.  But in this current environment of constant change keeping everything the same is at the very least not going to improve your business.  You don't need to make a big change, in fact it is better to continually make numerous small changes. People tend not to like change especially a large change, many small changes help ease the transitions.  There is no perfect business, formula, or strategy each and everyone can be improved and refined.  By remaining content with the status quo you are hurting your chances for growth and improvement.

A similar blog post talking about change (or lack of) from Inoveryourhead.net

Which strategy does you or your company use?  Is their another approach?  When should or do you make a change to how you or your company operates?  This post mostly applies for marketing, advertising and sales, what other areas would fit?


Photo Credit to Chapendra