One of the worst sins in business

I don’t often rant (well, ok, not that often) but those that know me, know that I’m pretty passionate about some things and when that passion gets focused on something, well…..

With the subject of this post you’d be forgiven for thinking that I’m going to go on about corporate sleaze, stultifying policies or general incompetence (much of which, it seems, we read about on a daily basis these days) in business. Well you would be wrong: one of the worst sins in business is slow, late or even worse non-payment of bills.

The kind of bills I’m talking about are not taxes (although that is sinking pretty low), or utilities – these have a pretty direct feedback i.e. goodbye business. The kind I’m talking about are from the delivery of goods or services to companies by employees, contractors, sole traders or small businesses. Big businesses (as the creditor) in general can (or at least should) be able to handle some degree of cash flow but for a company to hold up payment to an individual is, in my book, criminal.

While I’m not going to pretend that I’m holy than thou – I’m sure that I have inadvertently made this mistake in the past – what I find unbelievable (and inexcusable) is that some companies consciously operate with this approach as their default. Do they not realize that the, quite often insignificant, payment from the company’s perspective is very often make or break “putting bread on the table” income for the individual?

We are lucky in that my company and (my wife’s for that matter) clients are really good about this – they pay on (and in most cases well before) any bill is due – one of the reasons why we see them as great clients, and another one of the reasons why we’d go to the ends of the earth for them. Unfortunately it seems that an increasing number of companies operate differently and, in my opinion, they don’t deserve to be in business. The worst part of it is that they are often big, prestigious, and well respected companies who therefore have the individuals over a barrel from the get go.

One particularly egregious example that I know of is that of a local paper (owned and directly financed by a very large multi-national) that has a domestic worker as their cleaner and tea lady (for those of you that don’t know, in South Africa this is a very low - think minimum - wage job but quite often they are still supporting their direct and sometimes even also their indirect families with this). While all other employees are paid at the end of every month, months sometimes go by where this person doesn’t get paid, for no reason! It is just crazy – how can people live with themselves knowing that they are doing this to people? Another example, which happens all too commonly is very slow payment by big companies (advertising agencies are particularly bad culprits of this, at least in my indirect experience) to individual contractors doing freelance work for them. What are they thinking? Do they think that these people have a “float” of money that they live off and this income is just “gravy”?

Well, all I can say is that I hope that these companies get what they deserve – to go out of business (fast) – or at least the short-sighted policy-makers in these companies get hoofed out on their asses (ideally to then operate as freelancers so they can experience the pain firsthand).

Just (still) not getting it

By this time you’d think that pretty much everyone would get it. Get what? Well, get the fact that your customer isn’t going appreciate it they are charged for the (numerous) efficiencies and benefits that you gain from their using an online channel to do business with you.

In fact that will rather feel like they are being fleeced.

This is certainly how I felt yesterday when I went online to book some tickets to see a movie last night. The site of my local (national chain) theatre has thankfully improved greatly in recent times – for the longest time it was an embarrassment and the source of much amusement (when not cursing at it), it was that bad. Anyway, back to the point, I selected the movie and proceeded to checkout only to find that I was going to be charged a “service fee”. Admittedly it wasn’t a big amount, but that’s not the point. The point is that Ster-Kinekor greatly reduces their cost by having me book online (no cashier required, no handling of cash onsite which in ‘ol SA can produce its own set of challenges, and so on) AND – this is the part that most people miss – they are also able to run their operation a great deal more efficiently as, in this case, they know what bookings they will have for the show well in advance.

So whose stupid and short-sighted idea is it to charge more for booking online than at the cashier? Probably someone who views the online channel as another cost centre to maintain rather than an opportunity to drive greater efficiency and value through the organization.

Another painful example of this is most banks (who to their credit are beginning to get it, SLOWLY as banks do) who charge more for doing an online transaction than doing it in a branch (which has all its attendant overheads), taking up some teller’s time (who has to be paid) etc. The cost to the bank of me doing everything online is infinitesimally small compared to doing it at a branch (not to mention the customer service improvement, but that isn’t something that banks worry about in any case). Yet I am charged MORE for transacting online?!

Wake up, and you might be welcomed into the 21^st century.

Best Companies to Work For (or not is probably more correct)

Ok, so I’m going to be pretty biased about this sort of thing, but after hearing repeatedly from those that work at Open Box (as well as a lot of those that either used to work at Open Box or would like to) that we are the “Best Company to Work For” I thought that it would be interesting to be seeing how we’d rank against others that are rated (supposedly independently).

First stop, www.bestcompaniestoworkfor.co.za, supposedly the definitive guide on these things. Much lauded by those on or near the top of the list as well as frequently referenced in the media, I would have thought that this would be a good source of these things.

How wrong I was to be.

Firstly this is run / sponsored by companies that have interestingly appeared fairly high up the list in the past. I have noted that the companies that sponsor a year aren’t on the list for that year, but that doesn’t mean that they weren’t the year before (or won’t be the year after). Independent then? No.

Secondly, and to my mind most importantly, it is not about the best companies to WORK for, but rather about which companies have the best HR department. Yes, the HR departments and their workings are what is examined. The happiness of the people who actually work there? That isn’t important it seems. I don’t know about you but if I was working for one of these rated companies (and I actually have in the past) I’d be more interested in the how the company fosters the happiness of the staff, the growth prospects for all personnel and so on, rather than the “role of HR policy in driving business strategy” or “their HR strategy success”.

The sad thing is that a lot of people get suckered into thinking that these are good (or the best) companies to actually work for, by things like this. Although I suppose if you are in HR they probably are.

I guess I just focus on different things. I’m ok with that.

Disclaimer: we have not entered into this so this is not sour grapes.