New Economy Culture Shifts

With our economy shrinking, we not only are seeing lay-offs and smaller budgets to work with - we're also seeing a shift in company culture.

Whether it's our style or not, our company cultures will shift toward being more "hands-on." I just heard a minister tell his congregation that their church was under financial stress, but this was good because, "Maybe it's good that we clean up after ourselves and take out our own garbage." He wasn't being philosophical - he specifically meant that his church could no longer afford a professional cleaning service.

Most companies, large or small, will have less employees to do the grunt work, to do the clean-up that many of us have grown accustomed to avoiding. That, as the minister said, can be good.

Imagine if companies actually had owners and managers engaged in the customer's business - I mean truly engaged. Imagine if we all took out the trash, cleaned up after ourselves, turned off the lights at night and learned to do the basic maintenance on our computers?

That hands-on approach may result in a few mistakes here and there, but we'd learn a lot and our customers would see our face and hear our voice more often.


Barry LaBov
LaBov and Beyond
www.labov.com