Reflections on the Changes at Work

I was thinking and reflecting over changes that has occurred at WORK. I was up in KL two days ago to give a talk on How to Develop Brands. Usually, when I go to the office, the whole team will go out for dinner. Dinner is the time to get to know each other better and build relationship and fosters team spirit.

I noticed our team has more new members than old. There were 6 of us at dinner. Only me and one more colleague that's two of us is in the company for more than one year. Three in the dinner are in the company for less then 3 months. This sets me thinking... Our team were merged into a bigger entity in May '06 for "financial consolidation purpose only" in other words, our profits were attractive to others. "Every thing else was going to stay the same."

In the previous 5 years, it is the last 12 months our team experienced the highest turnover rate in personnel. Our growth has slowed down dramatically. Recently, I visited our office in Singapore. There were many pretty girls. Unfortunately, I do not know any of them because they were all new. I was in the Singapore office only a month ago when I had my farewell lunch with my good friend, Kate. The economies in Singapore and Malaysia are doing well. This may be the reason why our turnover rates have increased.

With the constant change of guards, I wonders how much we spend on cost of hiring and training, how high is the opportunity cost for lost knowledge and experience and the impact on our business. Change is good. For change to be good and healthy, I believe turnover must be kept to 10 to 15%. Any higher will likely to cost the company alot.

I thought about it. Anecdotes are not strong arguments in large companies. There must be facts and figures. Business performance is no longer at the historical rates 30% or more any more. It is in line with the rates of all other divisions. Through its actions, the company has got what it wanted. So the words that we want higher growth and stronger performance are just words. It is interesting to watch everyone repeating the mantras and doing and behaving in a totally different manner to ensure we get mediocre performance.

This is what I call "Actions speaks louder than Words."