Page 48 - How to Drive the Bottom Line with People

Built to Serve

years of their initial opening. However, the sobering
truth is beginning to bring about positive changes.

Some organizations are responding favorably, embrac-
ing new ideas, and adopting timeless universal truths.
Even so, business culture is at a crossroads. Chang-

ing it involves choice. It also will involve courage on
the part of those organizations facing the challenge of
taking steps to reverse the trend.
Too many organizations today are tangled in a web
of “financial adultery”; on the one hand, they are

engaged in a love affair with spreadsheets, numbers,
and the pursuit of wealth, while on the other hand,
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= they are obligated to the welfare of the human beings

who generate those numbers. Now mix in financial
experts from corner offices thousands of miles away
in some instances, and this form of cheating seems
innocuous.
Sadly, in this popular business model, an organiza-

tion’s workforce is expected to keep churning out
profits in a manner not too dissimilar to the machines
that fueled the Industrial Revolution.

If you subscribe exclusively to the belief that every-
thing has to have an immediate return on investment,
you will never fully comprehend higher math. It
requires an equal commitment to such things as safety,