Tag Archives: business

Business and Empathy Don’t Mix

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By Jason Menard

Well, today’s travesty about makes it certain that I’ll never buy a Ford again. Like the cars they build, the Fords run well, but have no heart.

The bloodletting has commenced and from the open wound, 25,000 to 30,000 jobs have spilled forth — all the cost of doing business and all part of a $1.6 billion US loss last year in North American operations.

I’m not naïve. I don’t see the world in rose-coloured glasses that doesn’t factor in the pressures of a market-driven economy. Nor am I so naïve to think that the unionized employees haven’t had some small impact on pricing themselves out of the market structure and making the company less competitive.

No, as painful as it is for these families who now have their lives wrenched asunder by an unyielding bottom line; this is all the cost of doing business. It’s a natural part of competition and business. And we could have accepted that. At least until Bill Ford opened his mouth. Because, as Bill Ford expressed to the media, we all have to make sacrifices here.

Where are those sacrifices for you, Bill? A hit on the stock market? A nominal drop in your net wealth? The accelerated impact that packaging and “inducements” as you so colloquially stated will have on your fiscal statements for the upcoming year?

Business is business. We get that. But don’t try to empathize, Bill. That suit doesn’t fit you nearly as well as the immaculately tailored one you wore to the press conference.

It is hard to believe that a multi-billionaire would have the audacity to envision a shared sense of loss in this situation. The sacrifices ol’ Bill makes, proportionately, are going to be far less than the devastation felt by those men and women whose sole source of income was their job at one of the 14 manufacturing plants now rendered superfluous to the company’s bottom line.

And these men and women don’t have the pleasure of diverting their attention from this tough time by tinkering with their personal NFL franchise – or a Super Bowl that will be held in a stadium that bears our name.

This is not to begrudge the rich. In fact, we as a society do far too much begrudging of the rich. Instead of feeling jealous for what they have, we should spend more time appreciating the talents that they leveraged to get to where they are in the social pecking order. We should strive to emulate their success in whatever aspect of life we choose to excel. To begrudge these people ignores the hard work they’ve put into to obtain – or maintain – their fortune.

But that doesn’t mean that we can’t abhor the total lack of empathy with the very people upon whose backs they’ve built their fortunes. These people, whose sacrifices Bill Ford feels he can share, spent their blood, sweat, and tears building the foundation for the mansions that the Ford family inhabits.

This is not a time for shared pain, Bill. He and other captains of industry need to understand that the public has little empathy for the multi-millionaire rearranging a portfolio or cutting losses to ensure a maximum return in the future. The public empathizes with the father supporting his family on one income – one income that’s now been taken away from him. The public empathizes with the single mother who works the line to put food on the table for her kids.

This is not a time to discuss the need for everyone to sacrifice. This is a time for the Ford family to apologize for the necessities of doing business. This is a time for the Ford family to get up and express an understanding of the human cost of turning a profit.

When we use words like resources, expenses, overhead, and operating capacity to describe a situation, we do so to dehumanize the principals involved. By treating the employees as commodities, it makes it easier to deal with the guilt that we should be feeling as humans when we tear another’s life asunder. So now Bill can go back to his home, absolved of the burden that this mass cutting temporarily placed on him. But what about those “resources?” Now that Bill’s sacrifices are complete, will he continue to share in the concern for those formerly under his employ?

That’s where this fake empathy causes the most consternation. By pretending to care about the very employees that you choose not even to refer to as people, it insults society’s intelligence. No matter how bitter the pill is, the public will swallow it because we’re not naïve. We know how money moves and we know the nature of the business world.

But, like a dying patient, we want the doctor to tell us the truth up front because sometimes that spoonful of sugar makes the medicine taste even more bitter.

2006© Menard Communications – Jason Menard All Rights Reserved

The Cost of Doing Business

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By Jason Menard

I’ve never been a knick-knack person. I don’t understand them, but I’ve grown to appreciate them. Despite my protests, I’ve come to realize that, beyond the depth and scope of my understanding, we have a need in this world for pretty things.

That’s why criticizing our elected and non-elected representatives for their spending can, at times, be counter-productive.

Recently former Royal Canadian Mint president David Dingwall and Governor General Adrienne Clarkson have been pilloried in the press for their questionable spending habits, ranging from lavish expenses on trips to seemingly petty reimbursements for coffee and doughnuts.

Yet, looking at the nature of business alone, these expenses warrant no more than a shrug. And, when you factor in the inflated cost of pomp and circumstance, then these expenditures are almost downright understandable.

Why does the average person get so angry at Dingwall’s spending, when we all do the same thing, when afforded the opportunity? When travelling on business, don’t we expense each and every item, meal, and out-of-pocket cost back to our company? I do. I’m doing business on company time, away from my home, without billing for extra time, so why shouldn’t my expenditures be compensated?

Or does the fact that this money is coming out of our own pockets in the form of tax dollars make all the difference? Ironically, many of us in the public have been demanding that government conducts itself in a more business-like manner – yet, here’s an example of business practices and we’re up in arms. And you don’t think those business expenses incurred in the private sector hit you in the pocketbook? Of course they do – they’re rolled into the cost of sales and are transferred to you in the purchase price of the product or service you’re buying. It’s just that we aren’t privy to the behind-the-scenes machinations of private enterprise.

When it comes to the office of the Governor General, there is a matter of pageantry that must be factored into any cost. Government officials, heads of state, and other elected and non-elected officials are not just selling Canada to the world – they’re selling an image of the country. You can’t do that on the cheap.

Throughout my life I’ve watched my father, who works for a major multi-national, travel on business meeting with vendors and various corporate interests. And, without getting into detail, I’ve been aware of the expense of doing business. Sure, you could take your clients to Taco Bell, but should you? Comping a fine meal may cost more initially, but the potential return on the investment is far greater. You don’t think that applies to anyone? Well, try taking your wife out to Burger King on your anniversary, justifying it by saying a meal’s a meal… Let me know how you make out when you regain the use of your fingers.

It sounds cliché, but in the world of business you truly do have to spend money to make money. Whether it’s communicating with clients, rewarding your staff, or travelling to trade shows or meetings, there is an expense that needs to be incurred for a business to have any chance of success. But, because it’s the government, we feel we have the right to do things on the cheap.

Unfortunately, as much as I hate to say it, money does make the world go ‘round. We can’t expect to compete on our merits and merits alone. We need the flash and dazzle, we need the glitz and glamour, we need the pomp and circumstance – essentially, we need those little pretty things to draw attention to ourselves, so that the substance behind the style can stand out.

We live in a global marketplace and we have to move at the speed of business to compete. It’s an investment in our future where only the bottom line matters. Did Dingwall’s cost of doing business harm the Mint? No, in fact it turned a profit under his stewardship. We need to look at the return on investment and not just the initial expenditure when weighing our public representatives’ spending habits.

No, they shouldn’t go unchecked and there should be financial checks and balances to approve these expenditures just like in any private enterprise – which there were. But the public needs to strain their vitriol through a filter based on the reality of doing business.

It’s the knick-knack theory of economics. While decorations aren’t integral to the existence of a home, they certainly make living there much more appealing – so why should we sell our country short? Politics is a business and we should treat it as such – there’s no difference between private expenditures that are rolled into your retail price and government expenses, except visibility.

2005 © Menard Communications – Jason Menard All Rights Reserved

Turning Down the Volume on Musak

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By Jason Menard

If silence is golden, then why can’t we turn down the volume on that most insidious corporate invention – Musak?

It’s as if we have to have some sort of background noise to drown out the empty spaces of our day. Perish the thought that we could actually talk, think, or enjoy a moment of quiet reflection without some not-so-golden oldie wafting out of the omnipresent speaker system.

Oddly enough, it is considered rude to walk around with a set of headphones so that you can enjoy your own musical selections. And it’s not like people want you to share – considering the looks we throw people who are cranking the tunes in their cars with the windows rolled down, or carrying a ghetto blaster (am I dating myself?) around with them blaring their tunes to the world.

Yet, some corporate entity can choose to drown out your thoughts with their pre-selected, mood-setting song stylings. Pacify the masses with Celine Dion’s back catalogue, because we don’t want someone getting riled up by Led Zeppelin in the freezer aisle and going postal with a package of pre-chopped spinach!

The problem with this mentality is that Musak is offensive by its very attempts to be inoffensive. In an attempt to be as broad-reaching and appealing to the widest demographic, Musak prides itself on its commonality. It caters to the lowest common denominator of easy listening. Instead of trying to spice up our lives, the question we are given to ponder is what particular flavour of bland we prefer! Yes, I understand that Richard Marx is a person too – but one would think that being regulated to the Musak rotation would symbolize the nadir of your musical career.

Normally, I’m a proponent of the concept of voting with your wallet and staying away from places that use Musak as the soundtrack of their shopping experience, but it’s impossible when every corporate entity is drinking the same Kool-Aid – just in different flavours.

Whether it’s at work, at any grocery store, in malls, or even in elevators, Musak follows us like a wandering minstrel of mediocrity. Variety only comes in the style of Musak, not the content. Do I want to listen to an instrumental version of Air Supply’s “All out of Love” or would I rather listen to the live version? Do I take the orchestral version, the synthesizer interpretation, or the pan flute rendering from Zamphir’s Greatest Hits?

And instead of pacifying the masses, Musak can actually backfire. In one particular working environment that I’m familiar with, we’re blessed to have musical accompaniment in our workday. However, the service that provides the music seems to be stuck on a permanent loop. For any given one-month period, you’re treated to the same selection of songs – repeated each and every day. I try, as a general rule, to avoid Cher’s “Believe,” yet, short of taking a sick day, I know I’ll be subjected to it on a daily basis.

I may, one day, have to have a root canal that’s unavoidable, but don’t expect me to enjoy each and every day knowing that this particular musical procedure is on its way.

To top it off, our own brains work against us when it comes to filtering out Musak. Instead of filtering out the sludge and letting the cream rise to our consciousness, our brains seem to get a perverse pleasure out of subjugating the songs we may actually enjoy and only alerting us when the tunes we hate are polluting the air waves.

And I know I’m not alone in having one of these infernal songs insidiously worm its way into your consciousness – sticking in your head on an endless loop, unable to be willed out of your thoughts.

When it comes to music, variety is the spice of life. When I cook, I enjoy using a little bit of that and a little bit of this, depending upon the meal I’m creating and the mood that I’m in. I don’t choose to season each meal with the same amount of vanilla each and every time! So why do we expect the same of our music?

Musak distributors around the world, lend me your ears! If you’re going to infest our airwaves with this noise pollution, at least make an attempt to engage our consciousness. Though I may detest it, I’m willing to put up with a little modern country if that means that some ’70s funk may worm its way onto the playlist. Lay off the Phil Collins drum solos and infuse some steel drums, bouzouki, or even a djeridoo!

What’s the worst that can happen? You may wake us up from the stupor brought about by this non-offensive, vanilla-flavoured, which-shade-of-taupe-do-you-like-better, Musak for the masses. You may, in fact, engage our attention, broaden our minds, and make us more energetic and enthusiastic shoppers and workers. That sounds good to me!

2005 © Menard Communications – Jason Menard All Rights Reserved