Airports

Airports are interesting, so full of expectations and potential. Everyone here is on their way. I don't know where but somewhere. By the looks of it some of them don't want to go where ever they are going and others can't wait to get there.

There may be no other place where we are so closely reminded of the frailty of our society. We tolerantly stand in line as our belongings and our bodies are electronically searched to prevent someone we don't know from killing us. It is sobering to think that that there may be people out there who are so angry at somebody about something that they are willing to kill anybody to make their point.

Management's Universal Problem

We don't know where we are, we can't agree on where we ought to be going, so we don't know if the actions we are taking will get us there.

Turn your brain back on! Good Advice for you, me and Jan Guillou!

Jan Guillou, a famous Swedish journalist and author, said the other day in an interview that he starts each day by reading several newspapers including a leading business newspaper (Dagens Industri = Daily Industry). Being a staunch socialist Jan felt compelled to explain that he wants to keep an eye on the opposition.

I like to read and I read lots of books, but I am generally selective about what I read. There is just not enough time to read everything so you have to choose. My selection process is not very sophisticated. There is a big risk that I choose to read things that just strengthen what I already believe. If I ever do read something that opposes my firmly held beliefs it is more likely than not that I won’t read it with an open mind. I will probably just look for weaknesses and counter-arguments. Sometimes I wonder what value people like Jan Guillou and I add to society when we stop thinking critically and just propagate the same old ideologies, religions or pet peeves we always have.

DN Debatt translation "Many corporate leaders just aren't good enough in the crisis"

There were quite a few of you that wrote to me and ask me to translate my debate article in Dagens Nyheter (Daily News) one of Swedens largest daily newspapers. Obviously, the article is written of a Swedish public but I am afraid the problems I highlight are equally challenging in many other countries. The article came out today and has already generated quite a bit of attention. If you would like to view the original Swedish article go to: http://www.dn.se/opinion/debatt/manga-som-leder-foretag-haller-inte-mattet-i-krisen-1.917974

Following is my own fast and more or less direct translation of the article:

”Many corporate leaders just aren't good enough in the crisis”

Experienced businessman criticizes corporate leaders: The crises cannot be solved by reducing head-count. Desperate cost-cutting does not improve a company’s long-term profitability. Head-count reductions almost always lead to reduced customer benefit and therefore to weaker competitive advantage. Far too many companies spend money on firing employees and then in a couple years they spend even more money recruiting new ones. Those companies that invest in developing their employee’s competence now will be much stronger when the current economic cycle turns up again, writes Kelly Odell who recently resigned as sales director for Volvo Cars.

I can keep quite any longer. After many years in leading positions in Swedish companies, I can only come to the conclusion that many of the leaders of our important companies just aren’t good enough. I recently read in ”Dagens Industri” (Sweden’s leading daily business newspaper) that ”Swedish companies are the most pessimistic in Europe” and ”Over half of Swedish managers expect more head-count reductions in their own organizations this year”. In my opinion many corporate leaders lack vision and in often even backbone.

The answer to weaker profitability is not necessarily head-count reductions. The answer may not even be saving money. These actions are typically only necessary if you have to maximize your results in the nearest quarter. If, on the other hand, you goal is to maximize profitability over a longer time frame the best thing to do may be to spend more money and invest in developing the competence of those employees who may not be needed in the operations at the moment.

No matter how dark things look at the moment, the long-term trend is that there will be a shortage of employees (not jobs). Many companies spend money on firing employees and then in a couple years they spend even more money recruiting new ones.

Those of us that have been around for a while know that at the end of each economic down-turn there are companies that emerge stronger and better prepared for the future because they invested themselves out of the crises. The same thing will happen after this economic crisis.
Some companies will disappear, some will survive and a few will bloom. The ones that manage best will be those that have a clear vision of what they want to achieve that will create real value for their customers. They are companies who stand by their core values even in times of crisis.
Some companies seem willing to do whatever it takes to survive, but the best companies and the best leaders would rather let their businesses go bankrupt than be forced to give up their core values. Take a look at many companies’ homepages and you will read high-flying visions and value statements declaring that our employees are our most important resource and expressions of customer centricity. But what happens when things get tough? The most important resource (the employees) at many companies is divested at the lowest possible cost and the ones who remain get no training or education. This leads, almost without exception to reduced value for the customer. For example, there are few large Swedish companies that don’t have longer waiting times for phone calls to their customer service as a result of the current economic crisis.

Some will think my views are naïve. Some will say that companies are bleeding and radical actions must be taken for the best of the company and for society. This may be true for some of our companies, but maybe we should ask ourselves how these companies ended up in a crisis in the first place. Where are their reserves? Were corporate leaders not aware that strong economic cycles are followed by weak cycles?

Even if I don’t expect anyone to know exactly when an economic cycle will change or how deep they will be, everyone knows these cycles exist. Some of our companies were in difficult situations even before the current financial crisis arose. For these companies the events of last fall were just an additional burden to carry. Many other companies on the other hand have made a great deal of money during many years for their owners during a long and strong economic high. Where is that money now? Didn’t anyone put away something for the winter?

Firemen, the polis and the military all know that you should plan and train for crisis when there isn’t a crisis. Have our companies done their scenario planning? What will we do if/when the economy declines? Do we have the resources to get buy? How will we manage our employees? I know from my own experience that many have not prepared at all.

Now more than ever we should focus on becoming more effective in our businesses not just on lowering costs. Reduced profitability is a normal symptom of economic downturns.
Possibly the most common reaction is cost-cutting. Cost-cutting is relatively simple to do and can solve short-term cash- flow needs, but in itself, cost-cutting does not improve the company’s situation for the future. The question we need to focus on is how to improve return on investment.

There is a direct correlation between the perceived customer benefit you create and the customer’s willingness to pay for it. Therefore we should think about how to create the greatest possible customer benefit with the least possible resources. What is really important for the customer? How well do we meet and exceed our customers’ expectations? How can we change our offer, processes or behavior to increase customer value with fewer resources? Hunting costs is easy but creating extremely cost-effective companies is difficult, very difficult. That is why far too many companies focus on saving money in a crisis without reflecting on what impact the cost savings will have on the organization. I have seen at close range repeated examples where we send 10% of the workforce home but we don’t send 10% of the work home. We have also not defined new ways of working that make it possible to get everything done with fewer resources. The truth is that you often don’t have time or competence to address those challenges.
It is also interesting to note that HR-managers in the USA are almost as pessimistic as their Swedish colleagues. My homeland, the USA, is also the home of (what Swedes call) “quarterly capitalism” and Sweden is often quick to jump on the latest management trends from the USA. Is it possible that we have adopted this American practice even stronger than they have? I have worked all over Europe and seen that central and southern European companies have a more long-term perspective especially with regard to financial planning in contrast to the Anglo-Saxon countries and Sweden.

Sweden’s corporate leaders have not created the current global economic crises on their own, but together we have unconsciously, and in cooperation with other business leaders and owners around the world, contributed to making the crisis worse.

Kelly Odell

Many of our corporate leaders just aren't good enough!

The following link goes to a debate article I had in DN Debatt. The debate page in one of Sweden's largest daily papers. Unfortunately, for those who don't speak Swedish you wont understand it. Maybe I will get around to translating it for you.
http://www.dn.se/opinion/debatt/manga-som-leder-foretag-haller-inte-mattet-i-krisen-1.917974

Looking for a Good Benchmark? Try QlikTech

I just spent an afternoon leading a workshop with one of the most interesting companies I have been involved with in a very long time. The company is called QlikTech (http://www.qlikview.com/) and if you haven´t heard of them yet , you will and the sooner the better for your own sake. QlikTech impressed me for two main reasons: The Product and The People.

The Product
QlikTech has a software product called QlikView that is as powerful as it is simple. As far as I am concerned QlikView is the premier business intelligence software on the market today. Those of you who have followed me or my blog know that I have been around and I have seen some good BI software solutions and lots of bad ones. Oddly, most of the good ones I have seen have been “homemade” . Whether or not these BI applications are “homemade” or purchased from a software supplier most of them are either not flexible or very expensive or often both.

QlikView puts information (and analysis tools) in the hands of the people in a way that is easy to comprehend so that your employees brain cells can work on analyzing data and solving problems instead of trying to compile and understand the data. In a time when most of us are used to application roll-outs that take weeks, months or even years QlikView takes days. Many companies still spend more man-hours creating reports than actually using them but not with QlikView. In fact, it will probably take less time for a manager to create their own report with QlikView than it would take them to ask someone else to do it.

The People
The second thing that impressed me about QlikTech was the quality of the organization. In my working life I have had the opportunity to peek behind the curtains of many different companies and organizations. It is not often I run into a company that is truly and consistently striving to walk the talk in the way that QlikTech is doing. Don’t get me wrong, with the kind of radical growth they have had, going from a start-up to a major player in the global Business Intelligence software arena they have had their growing pains. The difference is that they are seriously addressing the difficult cultural issues and not just paying them lip-service.

The group I met was what QlikTech call their Veterans. In their terminology that means they have been employed about 5 years or more. Veterans they may be but hardly old-timers by most company standards. Nonetheless, these Veterans were part of the company at a time when the whole company could sit around a table and drink coffee together. Today they have employees spread all around the world and you would need a coffee table the size of a football field to get everyone around it. QlikTech is working consciously (and successfully) with managing their corporate culture instead of just letting the culture happen. They are listening closely to and acting on employee concerns and ideas. They are striving to keep in touch with their entrepreneurial roots while embracing the benefits of growth and profitability.

In short, keep your eye on QlikTech and if and when they get listed on a stock-market somewhere I am going to be first in line to buy some shares. This is a company that is going places.

Ten Commandments of Change

I. Remember that change is inevitable.

II. Change is in itself neither good nor bad! Some changes affect us positively, some negatively and some not at all.

III. There are primarily three types of change:
a. Those changes we initiate ourselves
b. Those changes we did not initiate but over which we have great influence
c. Those changes we did not initiate and over which we have little or no control

IV. You control your destiny! Although we cannot always directly influence change we can influence on how the change affects our lives through our attitudes and actions.

V. The Paradox of Change: The outcome of change is difficult to foresee. Sometimes those changes that appear to be most negative in the short-term bring the most long-term benefit and those changes that seem most desirable in the short-term are not necessarily best for us in the long-term.

VI. Therefore, never initiate change simply for the sake of change! Change should only be initiated when absolutely necessary with a real desire to make things better!

VII. The three fundamental questions driving change:
a. Where am I now? (It is ok to be happy where you are!)
b. Where do I want to be? (You don’t necessarily have to change anything!)
c. How do I get there? (Go back and re-think the first two points before developing your plan of action!)

VIII. Base you decisions on facts. Intuition is better than no information at all but facts are always better.

IX. Don’t worry if you don’t succeed the first time. Change is difficult but it is never too late to try again!

X. Be persistent! Those who succeed are not those who never fail, they are the ones who never give up!

The Means is the End of Machiavelli

Machiavelli argued that the end justifies the means, but what if there is no end and in the end the means is all there is? Then the means would have to justify the means and that would put an end to Machiavelli.

Be wary of truth-sayers

Be wary of truth-sayers (even the one writing this). Although we are constantly in search of truth, the truth is that any real deep meaningful truth that may exist is likely beyond our capacity of comprehension. Anything we may believe to be true is highly subjective. Therefore we must be vigilant. We should never fall prey to comfortable “truths”. Truth is not revealed by the majority. Truth is not revealed through the beliefs of our ancestors or the values of the society around us. We must constantly question and re-evaluate that which we believe to be true and be humble enough to admit that although we may hold a truth to be true that truth is at best a victim of our perceptions.

Rules are made to help us, when they don't help us we can ignore them!

Behaviour in all organisations is steered by a system of formal and/or informal rules and values. In the event that a conflict arises between a rule and a value we should always opt in favor of the value. Rules are made to help us, when they don't help us we can ignore them!

Ignorance: The Root of All Evil

Far more evil is caused by ignorance than by meaness.

Fantasies, Dreams and Reality

The differnce between fantasies and dreams is desire. the difference between dreams and reality is effort!

Make the Most of This Crisis, They don't come along too often

I am not going to add to the mass of amature analysis about the current financial crisis facing the worlds economy. There are journalists, bloggers, politicians and gurus to cause enough confusion without my help. I would like to comment on a side effect of the current situation. It is really interesting to see how different people react under pressure (including myself). It seems that extreme circumstances tend to bring out the best and the worst in us. I have witnessed some people excerise great creativity in solving the challenges posed by the current financial situation but I have also seen extreme cases of tunnel vision, lack of focus and even apathy. Why is it that some people can meet these challenges with energy and resolve while others seem to fall apart?

I wouldn't be surprised if DNA plays a certain role in this. Some are born with better genes to handle a crisis. It is not unlikely that our socialization has a significant effect. Still I can't help thinking that there must be things we can learn, things we can practice that will make us better prepared for tough situations. Police and firemen train themselves to be able to handle situations that would be difficult for the untrained to handle. They learn how to handle their fear, how to protect themselves and how close to a fire you can stand without getting hurt. When it comes to the business world we are not talking about life-threatening risks. No one gets physically injured because profits are down. Surely if we can train ourselves to face raging fires and armed criminals while remaining calm and thinking rationally, we ought to be able to face a global financial crises.

Analyze your ghosts!

The ghosts you see and understand are not nearly as scary as the ones you don't. Often we are frightened of things without really understanding what it is we are really scared of. Potential risks become much easier to deal with if we identify them and analyze the impact these risks pose for us (as well as the probability that they will happen). May dad always says that 90% of the things we worry about never happen. Suppose you are worried about losing your job. The first question is how likely is it that it might happen? What would be the impact on you if it did happen? How hard would it be to get a new job? Would you have to take a pay cut or move to another town? What sacrifices would you have to make if you had to take a lower paying job or move to another town? By working through all the consequences you can develope an understanding of how you would handle the problem if it happened.

What's the worst that could happen?

Another trick is to ask yourself what is the worst that could happen? What is the worst that could happen at work? What would you do if the worst happened? Could you live with that? Could you handle the situation? If so, then you can get back to living your life and stop worrying! No one wants to lose their job or lose money on the stockmarket. When it happens it can be extremely challenging. Our emotions can swing from apathy to rage and back again. But being mentally prepared for the challenge, understanding the consequences and having at least a vague strategy for handling the situation can be a big help in meeting a crises. If you are feeling very brave you might even ask yourself what's the best that could happen? (A new, more interesting job with a better salary?) A crisis can be the catalyst you need to create positive change. Change in your life or in your organization!

Solutions or Confusion?

Remember when everything caused cancer? Every other day there was a new story about some new research that showed some new substance in our daily lives that was killing us. It finally got to the point where cynics and comedians came to the conclusion that life is deadly and living is lethal. The end result being that many people just gave up with the excuse that if everything you eat is going to get you then it doesn't matter what you eat!

Now I am afraid the same thing is happening with the environment. Today I was sitting drinking a bottle of mineral water in a cafe when a man came up and told me that mineral water was bad for the climate. I fully expected to hear a lecture about the stupidity of carting bottled water around the world in boats, trucks, planes and trains when we have fantastic drinking water coming right out of the tap (I basically agree with this!).

To my surprise he just laughed and said that scientists have discovered that the CO2 in bubble water destroys the ozone. Then he said "the scientists are all wrong! The problem isn't bubbles in the water; there are just too damn many people on the planet!" As our conversation went on he informed me that when we die our bodies give off gases that have a negative effect on the ozone. I cleverly suggested cremation but he said that was even worse!

So according to my new friend, the "cafe environmentalist", we virtually everything we do while we are alive is bad for the planet and even when we die it is bad for the planet so it really doesn't matter what we do! Being no expert in these issues I tried to suggest that if some things we can't control (like death) are bad for the environment then it is even more important that we do everything we can to minimize the negative impact of those things we can control!

Unfortunately I think my buddy has already joined the cynics! If everything we do is bad for the environment then it really doesn't matter what we do! I hope he is wrong!

Ten Commandments for a Successful Career

Those of you who have read my Ten Commandments for Leaders will notice that some of these commandments are the same. I hope that makes sense to you, it does to me!

•1. Listen: No one knows everything! You don’t have to be an expert on every issue!
•2. Always say your mind! You are paid for what’s in your head.
•3. Never get yourself into an economic situation where you can’t afford to tell the company to go to hell!
•4. You have to risk your job in order to do your job!
•5. Don’t worry about politics! In the long-term it is the results that count.
•6. If you’re not passionate about what you are doing then go do something you are passionate about!
•7. Make your decisions on facts! An educated guess is better than no information at all, but facts are always best.
•8. Take responsibility for your own motivation!
•9. Be resilient! Careers are not linear, they go up and down and you always get a second chance!
•10. Have fun!

7. Make your decisions on facts! Intuition is better than no information at all, but facts are always best.

In recent years there has been a great deal of hype for intuition. Hopefully, most of the hype is the result of misunderstandings. I don’t want to believe that intelligent people would encourage us to make decisions in a “Blink” instead of analyzing the facts. In fact, while some people promote the value of common sense I can’t help but think that even if we may all have common sense, there sure isn’t much about common sense that we have in common! I don’t know how many times I have heard people arguing vastly different points of view and all base their arguments on common sense! Give me a good old fashioned analysis of the data any old day!

It is amazing that so many companies can be so successful despite the fact that many important decisions are based on the nice warm feeling some executive has in their tummy. This in itself must be evidence that the practice of intuition based management is much more widespread than anyone wants to admit. In a world where everyone is guessing, the one who guesses a little better is the winner!

I am not opposed to making an educated guess as a last resort to fill in the gaps of good analysis. I am against basing analysis primarily on intuition and acting as though these guesses and assumptions are facts! Substituting facts with intuition should always be an exception and these exceptions should be documented and frequently re-evaluated since they are likely to represent major risks in the analysis. Over time, the “intuited” facts can either be confirmed by trail and error or replaced by facts. All too often these intuited facts become “truths” and no one remembers the origin of the information.

Jeffery Pfeffer and Robert Sutton’s book “Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths & Total Nonsense” is the best thing I have read on the subject of “evidence-based” management. If this book doesn’t appeal to your common sense then you might want to take your common sense in for an overhaul!

6. If you’re not passionate about what you are doing then go do something you are passionate about!

It is really rather simple! Competition will demand that you are good at what you do. In order to be good you have to enjoy it. You may be thinking that it is unrealistic to expect that everyone in the company is passionate about their work. You may be right, but we aren’t talking about everyone, we are talking about you! We are talking about the leaders of these organizations. If the leaders aren’t passionate about the business then who the hell is?

The choices you make not only affect you. They will also have a significant impact on your employer and your colleagues.

Lose/Lose/Lose or Win/Win/Win

You lose
The world is getting more and more competitive. In most industries customers have greater choice and require better products and services at lower cost. In order to meet these competitive pressures organizations are struggling to drive down costs through achieving greater efficiencies. In short, companies are expecting fewer people to produce more! In essence each of us has to get better and better at what we do. The only way to meet this challenge is to work with something you truly enjoy. If it is not enjoyable you just won’t be able to put in the effort that is required to succeed. It will just be too much like work! If on the other hand you enjoy what you are doing you will perceive the effort you put into it as self-development or even as play.

If are bogged down in a job you are not passionate about you aren’t getting the satisfaction out of you work you deserve. Since we spend so much time at work it is fair to say that you are not getting the satisfaction from you life that you ought to grant yourself.

Your employer loses
If you are on a job you are not passionate about you will not be able to perform at the level of productivity your employer has the right to expect from you. This could ultimately undermine your employer’s ability to succeed in highly competitive markets.


The other guy loses
By filling a position that you are not passionate about you are blocking that position from someone else who may be dreaming of doing your job. They will not get the opportunity to get their dream position as long as you are sitting there (at least not at your company). There may be circumstances in which there just aren’t enough dream jobs to go around, but what a terrible shame if some of these scarce positions are filled by people who don’t appreciate them and who may be secretly dream of doing something else!

5. Don’t worry about politics! In the long-term it is the results that count.

All organizations have politics if we mean the kind of politics that occur from the natural group dynamics when people try to cooperate to achieve their goals (hopefully common goals). In this sense, politics is about how we work together as a group, how decisions are made and how power is distributed in the group. Everyone participates in this kind of politics, therefore, office politics or the politics of any group are in themselves natural.

What happens, when politics become the end itself and not the means in an organization? Sometimes, the goal of a group or an individual is to gain and hold power not to achieve any tangible goals for the organization? Any goals that happen to be achieved become tools to hold or gain more power.

This is common in the governmental politics of a country. From the beginning, at least some political parties start with good intentions: A group of people with a shared world view or common values join together to try and make their town, country or the world better. They soon realize that in order to create the changes in society which they believe are necessary they need power and in order to gain power they need support from voters. The temptation becomes very great to say and do things that are popular with voters in order to get the power to drive change. In the end political parties can find themselves so compromised that it is difficult to align their “real” actions with the values and world view they espouse.

Unfortunately, these “negative politics” are not restricted to the realm political parties. They are just as common in non-profit organizations as they are in large corporations. Anyone who has ever devoted time to their local home-owners association or their children’s athletic club has probably experienced the nasty backside of politics.

We all know someone who is well liked by some managers, (maybe not as popular with their peers or subordinates) who seem to be well connected and always in the limelight but who never really seems to achieve anything. I have seen people like this, on stage, taking all the credit for an award that everyone knows is the result of the inspiration and hard work of others (typically their subordinates). I have seen people argue adamantly against an initiative and all of a sudden try to take credit for the idea when it has gained popular support or become a big success.

Despite all this, I am convinced that in the long-term there are two elements that outweigh all the power of politics. Results and integrity!

Any organization that does not reward good results is doomed! In order to succeed organizations must deliver value to their stakeholders. Whether it be shareholders, taxpayers, patients or students the organization that doesn’t deliver will die! Therefore, organizations need people who are focused on delivering results. These results oriented people will, over time, be encouraged and rewarded by their organization for the sake of the organization. This does not mean that a “politician” cannot win short-term victories from time to time but they cannot win long-term or the organization will erode and fail.

Integrity and results go hand in hand! They are really all about who you are, or who you want to be. No person is greater than the combination of her thoughts, words and deeds. And the greatest of these is deeds! Good intentions are fine and well but if never converted into actions they become cobblestones on the path to hell! Intentions translated into words can be powerful and lead to positive change. Words that grow from great thoughts become art, a deed in itself, which may inspire others to great deeds. Great words, combined with bad deeds are hypocrisy. Good intentions transformed into words and reflected by good deeds are the hallmark of a life well lived.

I sometimes think of a time in the future when I am old and looking back on my life. There will undoubtedly be things in my life which I regret (anyone who would not lacks insight) and hopefully there will be things of which I am proud. The question is what has been the overwhelming tone of my life. Has it been a life of ass-kissing, ass-kicking and manipulation or a life of reflection, integrity and achievement? Have I lived the life I wanted to live or a life that looked good in the eyes of others? Will I leave the world better than I found it or taken as much as I could with no consideration price my life will cost the ones I leave behind?

4. You have to risk your job in order to do your job! Losing your job is not the worst thing that can happen! (It can often be the best!)

Far too many people seem to think that the worst thing that can happen to them in working life is losing their job, especially, losing their job as a direct result of their own actions. The embarrassment of failure and/or the eventual threat of economic insecurity resulting from unemployment tend to limit our willingness, indeed maybe even our capacity to be creative and take risks. But risk taking is exactly what we have been hired to do.

The higher the risk, the higher the return! This premise is one of the fundamentals of economics. Despite this I have often heard people say things like “we need to minimize risk” or “we need to eliminate risk”. From the perspective of economic theory minimizing or eliminating risk is the same as minimizing or eliminating profitability. In any healthy company the direct opposite of this should be true; we should encourage our people to take risks.

I don’t know how many times I have seen looks of panic on the faces of various managers when I say things like this. I can almost hear them saying “What if an employee takes a risk that bankrupts the company?” When I talk about risk I am not talking about jumping out of an airplane without a parachute or playing Russian roulette with a loaded gun. These activities are not risky they are stupid. Risk taking should be the result of intelligent fact-based decisions making full use of our skills and knowledge while pushing the frontier of our competence. Risk taking is not foolish squandering of resources or wild guesses!

Companies in highly competitive industries will fail in the long-term if they cannot develop a culture that encourages risk-taking. The same is true of the individual careers of all employees in these companies! My own theory is that the greater your responsibility in the company, the greater risks you must be willing to take to succeed. Unfortunately, there often seems to be a reverse correlation between seniority in the organization and willingness to take risks.

There are many more jobs in the world for people who make $50,000 a year than there are for people who make $2,000,000 a year. It would not be strange if someone who has a $2,000,000 job were inclined to do whatever possible to keep it. They might also be inclined to avoid anything that might jeopardize their positions!

Risk avoidance will lead to failure in achieving results and ultimately to losing your job. Risk-taking over the long-term will lead to growth and profitability, however, on the short-term a risk that doesn’t work out well could also lead to losing that cosy high-paying job. If you do the math at an individual level you could come to the conclusion that you are likely to end up getting fired no matter what you do. If you play it safe and maybe offset declining profitability and lose of market share with cost-cutting initiatives you might just be able to prolong your employment longer than if you take risks. I am not saying that there are never scenarios where you should play it safe or that cost-cutting for that matter is always wrong. I am saying that these initiatives can and sometimes are misused by managers for there own benefit to the detriment of the company!

3. Never get yourself into an economic situation where you can’t afford to tell the company to go to hell!

Many years ago I worked together with a man who I respected very much. I was around 30 years old and he was closer to 60. Back then nobody used words like mentor to describe those kinds of relationships but looking back now he was clearly my mentor at the time. One night when we had been working late and sat talking he said to me “Never get yourself into an economic situation where you can’t afford to tell the company to go to hell!”

He continued by explaining that if you get yourself into the “Golden Cage”* two things are likely to happen. First of all you risk losing your job satisfaction and secondly your value to the company will decrease. When you sacrifice your economic independence you may stop taking risks and saying what you think (especially when what you think might be uncomfortable for your superiors). Paradoxically, the freer you are to walk out the door the greater the value you are likely to create for your company.

I remember a boss I had at my first job after graduating from college. He was always trying to get me to buy a house or at least an expensive car. One day I asked him why it mattered to him if I bought a house or a car. He said very bluntly that if I got into debt I would be more likely to stay with the company. This might very well have been true but the question is if this was really the best thing for my boss or the company? By increasing my dependence on the company I might very well have decreased my productivity (as well as my job satisfaction). There is no doubt that motivation increases productivity. As long as I work where I work because I want to, my motivation will be high. When I start feeling that I work where I work because I have to, my motivation and productivity will decrease. Add this to the “fear factor” (or prostitution factor as one of my friends calls it) ,that is the fear of doing or saying something that might jeopardize my job, and you might well have taken all the entrepreneurial spirit out of me.

*Some call it the Golden Cage! Maybe you have a job that doesn’t stimulate you intellectually. Maybe you even hate your job! The problem is that it pays the rent. It might even pay a great deal more than the rent. That job you hate may be providing you with a lifestyle that is hard to give up. Nice cars, nice house (or houses), fancy food, great vacations and a nice boat.