It Is Not Business As Usual

Public companies publish their quarterly reports to demonstrate the companies’ performance of the respective quarter. The CEO, who normally addresses the media, explains in some detail the revenues, costs, cash flow, investments, profit, losses, product launches and other data that is important for the investors. The ultimate objective is to show that the company in doing well and the investors will be pleased at end of year. If the company is not in good waters then the CEO must explain in detail the recovery plan within an established time frame. This is the scenario we are used to every quarter. The primary objective of any company is to make money.

Whenever there was the need of refining the mission statement, in all the companies I work for before, we always came up with amazing statements that will almost brings one into tears. Statements full of words for the good of the community, promising a nirvana, a better quality of life. However most companies leave such statement nicely printed in their corporate profiles and forget all about it in their everyday life at the office. At the office is another scenario. It is a complete race of numbers. Day on day, week on week, month on month, quarter on quarter and year on year. That is what matters most.

There are companies, not all as I worked in very good companies, that look at their employees only in numbers. How much is this individual generating for the company? How is this individual impacting the bottom line? These are typical questions that senior management ask when discussing the performance of their employees. When a company focuses only on revenue and blinds itself from everything else, it tends to become aggressive and arrogant not only with its employees but also within the market it operates in. Greed takes over these companies and will try to bull doze anyone or any entity that tries to stop them. They will not care if their project is impacting thirds parties negatively as long as they make the money. They will not care if their project is polluting the environment. They will not care if people loose their job. They will not care what the media says. They have a financial muscle and somehow or another they will crash the barriers and keep going. Unfortunately this is a reality in many countries and am not referring to developing emerging countries. This happens in Europe, United States, Asia, South America basically everywhere. I’ve been travelling the past 6 months and whenever I spoke with the local people I always heard to the same tune. Big corporations do what they want. Politicians are corrupt. They do not listen to us. It’s useless. It is business as usual. 

I say, it is time to tell them that it is Not Business As Usual.

I believe that we need more companies that put their employees first and give more attention to the individual. Profit shall only be the by-product, or else the consequence of the well being of the employees and the environment they work in. I wish that quarterly reports will highlight more information of what the companies are doing for the well being of their employees. There must be an ongoing dialogue with all employees at all levels to ensure that they are happy at work. This is not about salaries and benefits. It is about creating a community who are happy to work together for a common objective if they really believe in it.  More companies must give back to the communities, the village, the city , the country they operate from. The current climate crisis that we are experiencing can be easily solved by simply planting more trees wherever we can. I urge companies to sponsor parks to ensure that the communities live in a healthy environment and not in polluted air. We need more green spaces. We need our children to play and get dirty on the grass. We need to see children play hide and seek behind trees and bushes These children are the employee’s children. They are the future and it is our responsibility to give them healthy environment.