WEB INSIGHTS
EVERYONE MUST BE INCENTED TO WIN

By Marc Kramer
"Web Sight"
marc@kramercommunications.com

There are a lot of business lessons we are learning from our war with Osma Ben Ladin and the Taliban. In a prior column I wrote about pain an organization and country feel when they have underestimated their money and what we learn from a lack of preparedness.

The latest lesson we are learning is about the need to make sure everyone has an incentive to win. What am I talking about? A decade ago many of us watched the television show 60 Minutes and listened to an arms dealer tell us than tens of thousands of our troops were going to be slaughtered by Iraq’s army, one of the five largest and most seasoned in the world. I was concerned because Iraq had just been through a long war with Iran.

What I had factored in then, which didn’t surprise me now, was the large number of troops who threw their hands up in the air to surrender. During the Gulf War, we had a couple of army scouts going out to check on the enemy’s position and coming back with a couple hundred prisoners. Fortunately, we are experiencing the same thing in this war.

I am not saying the war is over, but our fears of Osma’s declaration of a “Holy War” against us were overblown. The reason it’s overblown and the reason I got on four airplanes the week after the attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon was because there isn’t enough incentive for the average Moslem to fight us.

Just like with Iraq, there is a core group that lives and is treated well. My guess is that not all of those are willing to die for Osma either because some maybe treated a lot better than others. What it all comes down to in any war or wars between companies for supremacy in a field or industry is not the leadership’s resolve to win, but the average solder or employee’s will to win.

Our solders have the will to win because the opportunities and life style in the United States are so much greater than what the Taliban has to offer. The Moslems we are fighting maybe uneducated by our standards, but they aren’t stupid. They realize what Osma is asking them to fight for is worth dying for because their lives haven’t been made better by the Taliban.

I have worked with companies whose leadership doesn’t share the wealth and they wonder why the best employees leave and those who stay aren’t willing to put in the long hours and share the good ideas they may have to strengthen the organization. The reason that companies like Microsoft, General Electric and Coca Cola are successful is because even the guy mopping the floors is financially treated well. They receive good benefits, share in the profits through bonuses and are awarded with stock options.

Just look locally at the former Philadelphia Electric Company, now Exelon. Everyone in the region has met someone who works at Exelon. Do you know of anyone who works at Exelon who is unhappy with the way they are treated by the company? Everyone I met feels as if they pulled the winning lottery ticket. What do the best companies and leaders do?

• Make sure employees are attending important functions with their children
• Taking a pay cut to save employee jobs
• Giving bonuses when the company is profitable
• Providing company paid health care and other benefits
• Getting employees involved in the decisions that affect their lives

If you want your employees to fight with all of the mental and physical energy against your competitors and not give a half hearted effort or defect, then you better focus on giving them a reason for getting up early, staying late and working on weekend’s. From what I see, Osma and the Taliban’s only incentive for supporting them was a bullet in the head at a soccer field for laughing at a friend’s joke or flying a kite. That doesn’t sound like enough incentive for someone to throw their life away when they see better alternatives.