Are You Streamlining Future Profitability?

An attorney walks into a restaurant…

The beginning of a joke or an illustration of how companies are choking the life-blood out of themselves.

Discretionary cuts. Technology efficiency investments. Workforce reductions. Moves being made in pursuit of consistent revenue growth and a board that stays happy.

None of this is wrong, exactly. Until it is.

What if we looked at our business like we looked at our customer journey.

Journey mapping. NPS surveys. Voice of customer programs, advertising, social media campaigns. Companies will invest heavily in the customer relationship because they know when they align their internal processes and operations to the customer experience, revenue follows.

And revenue is always the point.

What would it look like to apply the same rigor inside?

Most companies never ask.

Every milestone, every touchpoint, every moment that turns a prospect into a loyal customer happens because of the human beings behind it. The top performing salesperson. The customer service rep. The front-line assembly worker. The executive admin.

The people delivering the outcome you’re protecting are the same names on the workforce reduction list. The cost contradiction is measurable:

$20 million in lost opportunity for every 10,000 employees due to reduced performance and $322 billion in turnover and lost productivity.  (Gallup)

I had lunch last week with a M&A attorney. While discussing his background, I learned he spent more than decade at his first firm. While there he was diagnosed with an aggressive bone cancer that only two hospitals in the country could treat it—both out of state. The firm made sure he had what he needed, including flying other attorneys out to support him through recovery. In return for their support, he gave them fierce loyalty. His face changed when we talked about his current firm. That’s what culture looks like lied out from both sides.

A consultant once told me that culture isn’t for everybody or everything.

I’d argue culture exists whether the company focuses on it or not. The only question is whether you’re shaping it—or it’s shaping you.

The attorney’s firm knew that. Their ROI was a decade of fierce loyalty. The question isn’t whether you can afford to invest in your people. It’s whether you can afford not to.