The value chain, a chain saw mentality, chain store thinking and chains of command have the world of business in shackles. Each chain sets off a chain reaction that kills off creativity, passion and discovery.
Value chain was put in place to make sure companies are not spending dollars foolishly. But the value chain has a few weak links that in the end will cost your company even more money. Based primarily on reducing cost of services, value chain executers (an appropriate name) splice and dice, trim and slim and rip and strip budgets squeezing the very lifeblood out of the service that is being offered. The results: less service and quality. What’s more the value chain process has little value in building relationships. Often they hurt them. It is time that value chain departments depart from investigations to investing in what might be the next great idea for their company.
Chain saw mentality has cut into our values as human beings. Cost reductions by way of deducting people is no way to grow a bottom line. Still companies partake in employee genocide wiping out entire floors of people. The Coca-Cola Company lost much of its intellectual pop lately as it has many of its finest were poured out onto the street in the last decade. And most recently, BellSouth made the unfortunate call to let thousands go. Corporate policy must change so that autocratic leadership cannot become automatic canning of the most valuable asset a company has – its people.
Chain store thinking might be great for franchise operations, but within a unique company sameness or routinization will destroy innovation. For many, the dream is to do the same thing over and over but people are over it. Customers no longer buy products; they buy solutions- custom made ways of making their lives way easier. The days of one-size-fits-all have been circumvented by “the power of one.” Even conventional chains are localizing their efforts. Micro-brews are an example of “big is small.” Worst of all chain store thinking incarcerates brains. Thinking inside the box becomes the corporate standard. Standards are not for people who stand for making the world work better. It is time that we reward people creating new orders, not following them orders.
Chain of command is perhaps the most antiquated concept in business today. Militaristic, this medieval caste system allows for the rise of modern day dictators. In these organizations the boss is nothing more than “double S.O.B. spelled backwards.” Steely-eyed, know-it-all dogmatic, top-down leadership is a ship that is sure to sink as its captains abandon this old world school of management for more liberating, organic and democratic systems. Companies today need to get horizontal with their staffing structures if they want their profits to be vertical. Round tables should be used as a metaphor for how decisions will be made. And ideas should be heralded as the currency of leadership. Nurturing environments become the hot beds of creativity, passion and discovery. In allowing ourselves to fail without the ridicule of supervisors we innovate faster, better and more often.
Prison chain gangs work together. They are linked by common values. And they all report to one boss. Sounds like your company. Perhaps it’s time you make a break for it.
BrightHouse is the original Ideation Corporation. We are a global consultancy of thinkers creating commercial success through social value. We're creating a world where new ideas reign, where corporate values mirror human values and where higher earnings link with higher purposes.
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