Last year, I got extremely upset that some large public companies were simultaneously declaring record profits and laying off employees. Various management teams defended these practices, essentially saying that for various reasons, they represented responsible business practices.
If this was the case, I asked, shouldn't companies advertise the wisdom of their actions?
There's plenty of precedent for using advertising to brag about the ways in which your company tops its competitors. Firms promote better quality, lower prices and faster service. Banks promote that they are rock-solid.
Why not promote the wisdom - if you want to call it that - of laying off employees when profits have never been higher?
To make it easier for companies to crow about this "excellent" management tip, I even created a few sample ads. Click on the picture below and you'll discover my Slideshare jam-packed with campaign ideas for amoral companies:
Given some time to think about this, the practice still makes my blood boil. I know all the arguments about companies needing more flexibility, globalization, uncertain times, yadda yadda yadda.
But if you can't take care of your employees in the midst of record profits, how should your team expect to be treated when times get tough?
I have no problem if a company wishes to ignore human relationships and manage its operations in a cold-hearted manner. But, if this is the case, such a firm should promote this fact so that it attracts all the cold-hearted customers and employees to whom this approach makes sense... and repels the people who find this approach to be abhorrent.
The bottom line is that human relationships underlie all business success. The firms that forget this will eventually discover that they have lost the ability to manage their own bottom line.
###
Bruce Kasanoff (@BruceKasanoff on Twitter) is the author of How to Self-Promote without Being a Jerk, a simple little book about doing well by doing good. Click the FOLLOW button at the top of this page to see his new articles as soon as they come out.
