If you haven't seen the movie - Christopher Robin - you should. It provides an important lesson for humanistic management and more importantly - humanistic capitalism.
The story line is that Christopher has grown up. He works in RandD for a luggage manufacturer and he is being tasked with reducing costs to increase profits and if he can't do that - they are going to shut down the company because not enough people are buying luggage to make the company profitable. In short - they have a demand problem.
The solution - comes from Christopher helping his old friends in the 100 acre woods. And it's a solution similar to the one Henry Ford came up with. Which is that employees - need to be able to afford your products AND have a reason to need them.
Christopher's solution is - instead of just selling to the uber rich- which is not a big enough market to survive on – create customers by increasing pay and giving people time off – so they can afford – leisure pursuits – which in turn – create jobs and sales for the luggage company.
The added benefit is that it is also good for work life balance which is where Pooh bear comes in.
On Oct 26th 2018 - I will be interviewing Benito Teehankee about ethical wages and good jobs. http://humanisticmanagement.international/humanistic-management-professionals-lunch-and-learn-ethical-wages-and-good-jobs-with-dr-benito-l-teehankee/
Wage suppression is one of the ways - business owners try to maximize profits. And that is understandable. The problem is that this wage suppression - negatively impacts everyone's customer base. Greed as a business motive - often leads to REALLY bad solutions. Instead of thinking about how to maximize profits - they should have been thinking about how to increase their customer base.
Our businesses - need to be about more than just making money. They need to be about solving problems. And one of those problems is about how we view employees. Are they resources? Or actual human beings who are partners in wealth creation? I know I would prefer to be thought of as a partner in wealth creation. But that means - thinking about the weath create not just in a greedy way - but in a collaborative way. Where - everyone benefits - and not just the owners.
The story line is that Christopher has grown up. He works in RandD for a luggage manufacturer and he is being tasked with reducing costs to increase profits and if he can't do that - they are going to shut down the company because not enough people are buying luggage to make the company profitable. In short - they have a demand problem.
The solution - comes from Christopher helping his old friends in the 100 acre woods. And it's a solution similar to the one Henry Ford came up with. Which is that employees - need to be able to afford your products AND have a reason to need them.
Christopher's solution is - instead of just selling to the uber rich- which is not a big enough market to survive on – create customers by increasing pay and giving people time off – so they can afford – leisure pursuits – which in turn – create jobs and sales for the luggage company.
The added benefit is that it is also good for work life balance which is where Pooh bear comes in.
On Oct 26th 2018 - I will be interviewing Benito Teehankee about ethical wages and good jobs. http://humanisticmanagement.international/humanistic-management-professionals-lunch-and-learn-ethical-wages-and-good-jobs-with-dr-benito-l-teehankee/
Wage suppression is one of the ways - business owners try to maximize profits. And that is understandable. The problem is that this wage suppression - negatively impacts everyone's customer base. Greed as a business motive - often leads to REALLY bad solutions. Instead of thinking about how to maximize profits - they should have been thinking about how to increase their customer base.
Our businesses - need to be about more than just making money. They need to be about solving problems. And one of those problems is about how we view employees. Are they resources? Or actual human beings who are partners in wealth creation? I know I would prefer to be thought of as a partner in wealth creation. But that means - thinking about the weath create not just in a greedy way - but in a collaborative way. Where - everyone benefits - and not just the owners.
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