"Whose Business is it Anyway?"

Michael Rinaldi

President, Avail Consulting, Inc.

It never ceases to amaze me how the true nature of employees is manifested when you take something away from them. 

One can easily see the level of commitment or duty an employee has to his or her employer when problems arise that directly affect the employee.

Recall the reaction of thousands of grocery store employees when Kroger's announced changes in employee benefits.  Remember also the "issues" at hand when auto workers and other laborers have gone on strike.  I remember clearly when the titanium plant in my area had its laborers on strike over contract issues they wouldn't accept...which they settled for almost one year later. 

Interestingly, in the last situation,  while laborers sat out, management got busy producing at levels that outpaced having the laborers aboard.   They did so out of a sense of duty.   Nothing more, nothing less.

This is not a debate over "issues".    "Issues" are only positionalities of one's own or a group's collective ego.

What is interesting is that the same mentality that exists in large groups does so in small ones.   Hence, size doesn't always matter.  And unfortunately, unless it is policed,  this mentality can become a contagion that can lead to problems within a group or organization.    

Consider the following scenario.

A second generation print shop owner takes over the business from his father.    He decides to expand the business in order to better thrive in an increasingly competitive market. 

Good idea.

For the next four years expansion occurs and  things are good.   Very good in fact.  He hires more people, adds some services, and generously bonuses employees.  Things are so good that he's got money at the end of the year that he simply "doesn't know what to do with."  (That's a problem, believe it or not)

But things slowly begin to change over the next few years.   He can still operate the business the way he wants to--the way Dad did-- but there are undeniable changes which he saw looming years back, that are now taking fruition fast. 

Timber prices are up due to construction spending and ravaging forest fires, and this has driven up paper pricing.  Oil prices have gone through the roof as India and China have begun ramping up industrial output and are using more oil to run their countries.   Electric energy and natural gas pricing has skyrocketed at home for similar reasons (not withstanding market manipulation by cartels).   Not to mention a tripling in health insurance premium cost to the owner as well. 

Add to the mix a forty-fold increase in competition as small print shops around the country have begun to leverage the power of the internet to improve sales and take market share away from the print shop owner.   He's losing printing business from the ma' & pa' restaurant down the street to some start-up in northern Oregon who can print their menus and have them delivered in five days  at  less cost than he's quoted them.  

Can it get any worse???  

(read on)

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