As a recruiter I have the advantage of seeing business through a birds eye perspective. Whether you’re my small 15-employee start up or my large Fortune 100 corporation, I come to gain an intimate knowledge of your fears, struggles, hopes, frustrations, accomplishments, etc.
I have to say – it’s fun when I can hold my own in a business-related conversation with my father (who has been in the specialty metals industry for the whole of his career) because decision makers have confided in me and come to me with problems looking for solutions in candidates I seek out and recommend.
From my view everything seems so uncluttered; so simple. I believe that decision-makers become so involved in the day-to-day crisis, action/reaction environments they live and work in that they don’t see the simplicity in balance.
Balance in an organization is achieved by investing in human capital. It’s as simple as the concept of supply and demand; balancing yin with yang.
If you have an incredible, innovative product that’s not selling – your investment needs to be in marketing / sales.
If you have a company whose product lines are becoming outdated or technologically arcane – your investment needs to be in R&D / Product Development / Market Research.
If you have a company who just can’t keep up with demand – your investment needs to be in operations management / new skilled tradesmen / supply chain
If you have a company losing contracts to the competition – your investment needs to be in supply chain / market research / product development / sales
From my view, a company is not operating on all cylinders if there is an imbalance – the key to running a successful business, large or small is being able to manage the GREAT BALANCING ACT. Being able to anticipate needs to facilitate them just one day ahead of schedule! A GREAT company operates proactively rather than reactively.
The interesting part of my job is observing the companies that get it, the companies that are struggling to get it, and the companies who “don’t know, don’t care” and are flabbergasted when their senior engineer (with all of that yummy intellectual property milling about in their head) walks out their door for one of the other two types of companies.
Now, I don’t mean to over-simplify what can be a very complex thing; running a healthy, profitable business. I suppose I’m just commenting on the tipping of the scales.
I like to look at it as one would look at a self-contained eco-system. Though there is constant change, nature always strives to achieve homeostasis. When this balance is achieved, every organism in the eco-system survives and some flourish.
A business doesn’t need to be healthy to make some money, but to really flourish and grow and plant roots I believe balance is essential – and balance is only achieved through the acquisition of talented, innovative, detailed, gregarious, technical employees.
