You've done it. Your company has become THE leader in your industry, either locally or even nationally. You're the company that others look to and say "We want to be like them." The steps that management laid out to get to the top have been achieved. Let the party begin.
But, after the festivities have ended, and the cake has been consumed, and the confetti has been cleaned up, and that goat that found its way into the party has been returned to the local petting zoo, what do you do?
If you just sit back and rest on your laurels, one of your competitors will run you down, catch you, and overtake you, putting you back to where you were at the beginning, and making that guy in HR's brilliant goat stealing techniques completely for nothing!
If you push people to keep striving to be better, do you run the risk of losing your workforce? Could they say "We are the best. We worked incredibly hard to get to the top. We did what you asked us to do! How could we get better?" Also, how do you chase someone and run them down when you're winning the race? Do you risk sending the signal that you don't have confidence in your employees to maintain their high level of productivity unless you've trying to catch someone?
To me, there has to be a balance between keeping motivation high, while making sure you're not pushing your employees into overdrive and running the risk of burning them out. Maintaining productivity is essential to any successful business, regardless of their standings in the industry. In fact, SPEAKING OF BENEFITS, here's an article about BENEFITS (Wow! Who would have guessed?) from MarketWatch...Clever way to put a link into an article.
So anyway, back to my original point. Once you get to the top, how do you stay there?
I think that the best way to figure this out is to look into companies that are already there. I would say that the best ways to stay on top is to be flexible and to be on top of innovations in the companies field. As far as employees go, something that would keep me going would be to emphasize the point that it takes hard work to get to the top, which they have clearly shown, but it takes even more to stay there. To stay at the top means that the company should be doing better and better, which should be passed on to employees.
ReplyDeleteHi Tom,
ReplyDeleteI do agree with you on a balance between keeping individuals motivated and not pushing the workforce entirely to hard. From what I learned in marketing, once you are at the top of the industry that there is not too much time to sit back, there are always creative approaches to take in consideration. Once you are #1, it seems that other companies paint a bullseye on your company and want to basically mimic what you are doing because the thought is “if this company did it this way, it must of worked because they are #1”. Whether this is correct thinking or not, it is important to keep the workforce motivated but not overworking them like having the employees work on weekends. It is important to find a common ground between being a good employer and still maintaining your competitive edge. Even with many competitors to take on keeping a balance is essential to doing good business.
We are living in a very competitive world. We are not only competing domestically, but with people, firms and businesses around the globe. Constant innovation, creativity and the ability to redefine yourself or your company is crucial factors in getting to the top and staying there. Whats innovative today might not be tomorrow, so the constant push to achieve that extra edge might just be helpful for a business to stay at the top.
ReplyDeleteI know there is a theory out there I believe in marketing I do not know who wrote it but it generally goes you never one to call yourself number one for two reason one the only direction you can go is down and the second reason is as soon as you called number one everyone in the market wants to take you down or take a piece out of you. When I first read it I was wow this does make senses. I would think that once a company is named the best it would be hard to keep the people that made it that way for long since everyone is going to want to hire your people.
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