Creating business value: when profit and people both win
Before I became a professional volunteer and entrepreneur, I worked to create value for companies using various business improvement (BI) methodologies. Most of that value I created (ahem, helped to create – BI is a team sport) can be expressed as cost savings – hence my former employers’ willingness to invest in my training and salary. Let me try to say this without bragging – I saved them a LOT of money! Thousands in some cases, millions in others.
Ebenezer Scrooge in a skirt?
How did I do that? Since the terms ‘cost reduction’ or ‘cost savings’ inevitably bring to mind a mean-faced, heartless approach to managing a business – squeeze as much as you can out of your employees, give them as little as possible, and watch your profit margins fatten – you might be thinking that I was a sort of “Grim Reaper of the Workplace”-type character. Well, not so.
