jeudi, juillet 30, 2015

From Human Beings to LDAP entries

Nowadays tendency when companies merge or there is a take over operation and the resulting body reaches a critical mass of employees, the human side of the company which usually held HR or a similar body is gradually lost. A company's goal is to make money, but also save operating money to reduce cost; both help increasing share holders dividend if the company is listed. The merging or buying helps to reduce cost of operating, to gain in competitivity. So if you have X HR employees in the first company and Y HR employees in the second one, the resulting company would most certainly not have X+Y HR employees because higher management will most probably say the work is been replicated. Usually the HR force will be reduced by 10 to 30% because the baseline of work can be handled by a reduced number of employees and many tasks are run through processes, therefore can be "automatized".
There is one factor the you consequently loose: the factor that makes the company "human". It is when the employee feels like he's not a number, that the HR representatives looks at him as original, and not through a series of processes and ticking boxes. That factor exists because of a silent work generally not traçable and unseen in reports, statistics and other weapons used by high management to measure the value added of an HR employee, which is actually taking up to 30% of the HR body's time. As opposed to Marketing/sales where you pay more attention to this human side, because down the line it generates revenue. Reduced HR team will do the same work that is within their job description. The issue is that the human side is rarely part of it as you have to generate or save something traçable immediately (e.g. revenue), not happiness and well being. The energy consumed to do their extended work within the newly generated company is energy they do not spend anymore in perfecting the "human" side of the company.

That's when employees become LDAP entries: their past is forgotten, what matters is the present work they are doing and the prospect of what they can give to the company in the future. Hence, a young professional will be seen as more attractive as the past (the experience) is not taken into account in the new calculations, only the present which is ok (almost a cheap labor with great expectations). An experienced an old professional within the company is at loss because all that he has done is not taken into account, he currently works good but he is expensive and the prospect is short as he has few years left before retirement. Within this line of thoughts a natural reaction is to try to retire him, and maybe re-employ him as a consultant (less expensive and easily disposable) if the market allows it. Sometimes the limit is pushed up to considering out employees in the wrong place at the wrong time (e.g. location in a downturn, employee between assignments and a HR department with strict orders of headcount reduction). 

With the globalization, it becomes impossible to mix workload with emotions within a company that reached a critical mass of employee, because that company does mix only with numbers.

jeudi, mars 26, 2015

Hoovering off carbon dioxide, is it realistic?

First of all, I am an all out fan of the Carbon Capture and Storage technology. It has been already a few years I have been gathering information. As I love to dream and picture simple stuff in my mind (it kills time off metro-commuting for example) I always figured out a bright future, Brand-New-World lookalike with pastel colour automatic little hoovers buzzing around busy city centers sucking off CO2 from immediate atmosphere and shiting calcium carbonate bricks*... like rabbits. I never said it was clever thoughs but the idea was keeping me intertained for long enough. Another of my thoughts was, due to the GHG effect retaining sunlight's heat from evading the Earth, the high CO2 concentration is probably up there in high atmosphere and not down here. So I was also trying to figure out the same hoovers but mounted in drones hoovering the stratospheres.
This morning I checked my internet alerts and discovered that Virgin's Sir Richard Branson launched back in 2007 along with Al Gore a contest called the "Virgin Earth Challenge". One of the challenger company made a news statement earlier this month regarding a pilot plant talking about... sucking off CO2 from atmosphere! So first I thought "niiiice", but then I remembered my drones and I wondered if it is not more efficient to suck CO2 off from high up rather than from the ground level? On the other hand, to give them justice, I know that some industries use CO2 as soldering atmosphere to avoid presence of oxygen around the flame and not having to use rare gas, much more expensive. This would mean that CO2 is heavier than air, hence would stay at ground level. That question I will leave it to further investigation, as it triggered my curiosity but for now you can watch this company's announcing video:





*: Calcium carbonate is a by-product of heated up and compressed CO2 in the presence of calcium which could be stored on a little batch reactor behind the hoover powered by sunlight. I had it all figured out, you see? :-)

mercredi, mars 25, 2015

Power of images

I might state the obvious here, but advertising is something corporations take very seriously and that independently of their intention. They just cannot afford to miss their target on advertising, the "too big to fail" downturn is that, just like superstars, dirt goes off your public image way harder than glitter. That is why you will never see some huge companies advertising, they are simply scared of missing and do not want to spend the money it takes no to miss. I have a good example of successful (by my own standards which you might not agree with) advertising for a company that wants positive publicity: BASF sustainability Newletter. Before I go any further I want to say that I did like the way they formatted it, that's why I tried my best to explain it.
 First you look at the newletter and just let yourself go through their updates. Then take two steps back and observe. How did they format their NPO-type newsletter? The first picture is crucial, it is the one that will take the reader through and I stole it for you to stay with me and read my post (I know, I'm evil :-) ). Here we see a fragile human, female child and indian-lookalike. You immediately associate it with:

  • peaceful religion 
  • resilience to their fate 
  • general happiness of living (the colorful background underlines it) 
  • fragile financial situation of 90% of the population. 
 Then the first plan blurred out to understand the focus is on the human, the tap is only the context. It could be food she's pointing at, but you would not associate it with sustainability as easily as with water. The results gives you impression that the mighty can also take care of the frail and help him. It does not say up to where nor how. Then it goes on with other things that you might want to read or not, but you will be caught by this fragile little girl with her used tin bucket pointing at the tap with a happy face. You are now in the emotional with this picture, it would not be the same if it was that middle age indian man signing an important collaboration contract that will be much more of a help for the little girl and her family's future than the water tap (does it work?). BASF intentions are secondary for my analysis, what I want to emphasize is that BASF surely used media professionals to format this newsletter. They cannot afford to waste a Newsletter if it does not advertise inderectly and positively the company. Worst, the newsletter backfires because you did not care enough to what you would show the World. For this reason you will see many companies willing to remain out of the spotlights.

 P.S.: If you feel I am wrong, I'll be glad to hear from you. It is not my area but I have an inclination for marketing and a passion for photography.
 P.P.S.: I really would like to thank the photograph that captured such a beautiful and fragile expression of this child. If anyone knows him please let him know his photo is beautiful.