basictraining
SOME THINK
AUTOMATION
IS OPTIONAL.
WE THINK
DIFFERENT.
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or their contributions to profitability and market position.
They ignore the ultimate reality that the enterprise must
succeed to be able to afford any reward or recognition.
ARE THERE CURES?
Maybe. They begin with a re-ordering of thinking and of
acceptance that the new “rights” and growing expectations
are a natural and desirable progression. This will take, perhaps, generations to turn around and a commitment to educate in this direction.
We can begin with simple introductions of the long-term
economic facts of life within an organization’s four walls.
Management and associates alike must learn the basics of
what makes up profit and loss, of what contributes to margins, of what drives sales, and of the need to make capital
investments—and how what they do affects the key elements
of a business’s economic success, or failure.
Once those basics are in place, we can move on to the next
step of understanding enterprise performance—the key
measures of return on assets, return on equity, and asset
turnover. In our supply chain world, as we have noted several times, we need to teach how our accomplishments and
decisions in customer service and satisfaction, sourcing
management, inventory management and control, and cycle
time reduction affect gross margins, asset base, net profit,
and asset turnover.
TODAY INTO TOMORROW
But all this doesn’t make a lot of sense to a workforce if all it
does is show them how to make the business stronger. They,
in enlightened self-interest, need to be able to participate in
growth, profitability, and success if they are truly to remain
engaged as integral parts of the organization. We have come
a long way from the day of orphans working 16 hours a day
in textile mills for a few pence and a daily bowl of gruel.
And we have a long way to go in going back to basics, without going back too far, and building self-perpetuating entrepreneurial, engaged, and empowered employees as engines
for business success.
Designing appropriate and sustainable incentive programs,
with metrics that make sense and objectives that are realistic,
is a job all by itself, but it is also part of the complete solution.
And it is a solution that we desperately need to build and roll
out. The program, by the way, provides the best hope for linking reward with accomplishment—relevant achievement that
aligns with corporate needs and objectives.
The path we are on may not lead to Greece, but we are fortunate to be seeing previews of coming attractions throughout Europe. ;
Art van Bodegraven may be reached at (614) 336-0346 or avan@columbus.rr.com.
You can read his blog at http://blogs.dcvelocity.com/the_art_of_art/. Kenneth B.
Ackerman, president of The Ackerman Company, can be reached at (614) 488-3165
or ken@warehousing-forum.com.
