Innovate without people? Impossible!!!

There's not a company out there that doesn't have growth or innovation as part of its corporate strategy. Despite the global economic challenges we face, most corporate executives remain hopeful that they can develop and implement strategies that will enable them (at some point) to dig themselves and their companies out of this self-made hole in our financial markets. Some of these same executives are under tremendous pressure to cut expenses and some have opted for the "across the board layoffs" that we've seen reported in the news in the past couple of months. As I sat in my banker's office last week, we discussed the pending 53,000 employee layoff announced at Citigroup. In comparison, she mentioned that would be more than the equivalent of my banks entire Southeast region...gone. Erased. Deleted.

So what's my point? People still drive the bus...make the donuts..and are the only real source of competitive advantage a company has. After my more than a decade of experience working with some of this countries top corporations, I know this to be true. Now before you jaded realists delete my blog never to return again, let me assure you that I certainly know that there are times when companies have to make difficult decisions to eliminate jobs and that some of those roles may in fact be critical ones. However, I also know that these decisions are usually made and executed in less time than most companies spend picking out executive office decor. There is no growth without people. There is no innovation without the individual and collective wisdom of talented and skilled people working to execute on forward-moving strategies.

So while it's certain that jobs will be lost, companies need to take care to ensure they aren't losing talented people. Companies must implement and continuously improve processes to assess and develop their talent pools. It's less about an employee's role or title and more about the critical skills, knowledge, abilities and attributes they bring to an organization. It's a matter of value. A critical question that every manager must ask and answer about each member of their team is "would I want Joe The Employee working for our top competitor?" If the answer is "No", then it's obvious that "the company" can't afford to lose him. There's an adage in the Human Resources arena that must be kept in mind -- "tough times don't last but talented people do".

Just think about it...every million dollar idea for a new product or innovative way to capitalize on a market need started as just that...an idea. And last time I checked, people still hold the exclusive patent on those!