Moron CEOs Operate with "Line Item" Mentality - Sacrificing the Bottom Line

Anyone who is famous for quoting, "You want a friend, get a dog" is definitely an insider to follow in our book. From the way that we run our company, our philosophy is to treat all our people - customers, suppliers, and employees - the same way that we would want to be treated. In our vast experiences working for the Man, the dollar and ourselves, we agree that corporate CEOs are morons especially for the amount of money that they are earning.

From my own observation, a lot of companies would fare better if those at the top were able to see the big picture of ALL the elements that makes up the company's bottom line (where the profit is) rather than going ape-crazy over the individual line items. The universal business technique for millennia is that it takes money to make money. For example when a CEO is cutting over time and employees' pay all in the effort to save on labor costs, it's inevitable that the deficit from the labor line will show up as an increase on another line item.

Balancing the equation is basic accounting. You take from one side and it shows up on another side and vice versa. A decrease in overtime could show up as an increase to outsourcing or other production costs unless of course, the company decides to scrap the production altogether. But that's not how it works in the real world. What is the purpose of cutting overtime if the production slack is going to be picked up by an outsourced company for 300 times more than the cost of overtime? G-d forbid in today's day and age an employee making ten dollars an hour earn fifteen dollars worth of overtime!

In my opinion, by utilizing a little leadership skills rather than using fear and intimidation that corporate America is saturated with, companies could increase profit for shareholders simply by treating the employees as part of the company rather than just a line item expense. When employees feel valued by the company, they are committed to the bottom line and out of sheer loyalty (a concept that has been relegated to dogs) will go the extra mile for the company, be it working overtime, increasing their production effort or doing what it takes to succeed.

Theory X was a concept that was geared for the industrial revolution. Theory X tried to prove that employees hate working and have to be told what to do. This is where the whip cracking mentality comes in and the lackluster performance of people taking responsibility for their jobs. Nobody wants to be fired or yelled at by a lousy boss so finding a corporate scapegoat where people can point the fingers to has become the norm. Instead of fixing problems or being proactive, the company wastes time and money trying to figure out whose "fault" it is. The product quality gets diminished because the employees want to hide underneath the desk to avoid getting yelled at while customers are forced to buy crap or endure lousy service. In the end, no one is happy and to fix things will cost twice as much if the company has to go back and start from scratch finding new customers.

On the other hand, with the human evolution happening as we speak, the success of the company depends on everybody. From the top down or bottom up, it takes all spokes to make the wheel go round. Productivity increases when people are content with what they are doing. Most people would take a cut in pay in order to do something that they love. The positive attitude shows in the products or services and with satisfied customers, the bottom line increases naturally. Training the employees to solve customer problems instead of shuffling the customer through the motions of a system could help the customers come back. With good relations, it is easier to service existing customers than it is to find new customers who will fall for a flawed product or scam.

Most people higher up on the rung think that if they train the lower people, they will eventually move up the ladder and surpass them. This is line item mentality. These "grunts" at the bottom are usually the ones on the front-line who deal with the customers on a regular basis. If they're capable of working with people, they don't have the leisurely time to figure out the secrets behind the operation. Giving these employees adequate information to deal with customers and training them to solve problems will give them more initiative to take on responsibility and motivation for the company's success. Training people at the bottom to do things right makes them more efficient and gives those at the top more time to fulfill more important responsibilities.

Inspiring people to perform because they feel like they mean something to the company would bring about more productive bottom-line results rather than slapping employees with a barcode and making sure that they don't take more than half an hour for lunch. Instead of sticking customers with a contract with outrageous cancellation fees after providing terrible service, it would be much more beneficial to have a live employee solve a problem immediately to keep the customer from finding another service or a good lawyer to demand their money back. This is much better than having the customer get transferred to another department or be told that the manager can't come to the phone repeatedly and get sent to a computerized voice whose prompts don't understand English. Only an idiot would run a company in that way - eventually people catch on and stop buying - and, in my opinion, this is exactly what's going on behind today's dire and declining economy.