Since the collapse of the economy, a major topic of conversation has been the ways business can change to avoid this kind of collapse again. Analysts and arm-chair generals alike have been rifling through numbers, graphs and logistics. What it seems like people forget in business, recruiting, entrepreneurship and finance is the individuals.
More than anything else, a company is a unification of individuals. A company’s best investment is in the people who create it’s whole. When the sum is greater than the parts, the better the parts, the better the sum.
For instance, a company that invests in it’s employees furthering their education recieved in return a more efficent and thoughtful producer of ideas. A company that ensures teh mental and physical health of it’s employees ensures fewer sick days and engenders a love of the work place. In an ideal scenario, employees should look forward to each new work day for the opportunities they get to utilize their minds in a way that benefits something larger than themselves.
But this kind of personal development extends beyond the individuals and can even be extrapolated to a level of ethics and moral development. For instance: companies which view their product as a service rather than a money maker generally provide better customer service and a higher quality of product. Efficency, speed and streamlining are all essential to business, but when they cost a company it’s reputation for service or it’s underlying mission, they lose their worth.
Building a strong foundation guarantees a building can be built taller, but it’s impossible to build a stable building on unstable land. It’s impossible for trees to root if their roots are trying to grow through untenable soil. Make sure to invest in the whole person – yourself, your employees, your boss – and reap the rewards financially and on a personal level.
