Tool Box
Issue No. 15 - February/March 2004
Don‘t Cheat to Compete
by Bill Anschutz
Running a business in a global market is like participating in a first grade grand final, every day. How do you handle these pressures and stay sane and competitive?
The temptation to cut corners—“flex the system", or move away from the idealistic values that are on the wall, in the mission or value statement——becomes greater.
Training and developing staff to be able to cope with growing needs, is increasingly frustrating as key people are poached or leave for what they believe to be “better opportunities".
There appears to be no such thing as loyalty. Personal agendas are sometimes subversive and expose the management to penalties through sexual harassment and other unacceptable behaviour.
Growing legislation, regulation and penalties, become increasingly ominous as governments respond to public disenchantment with corporate disasters.
Dealing with poor management and staff knowledge and attitudes, is par for the course and it is easy to become “case hardened", insensitive and lose patience with the endless pressures and difficulties of managing the frailties of human interaction.
The management books seldom write about these issues and you wonder whether those who write have ever had the experience of being “down and dirty, where the rubber hits the road". Do the management writers sanitize the examples and hide the real issues in fancy titles that sell books? The real solutions are often found in discussions betwee...
