Carol Sanford
We hear about the unemployment rate daily it seems and it is not good news. But businesses cannot afford to hire people when demand is low and productivity as well. They can meet current demand with their existing work force. So is there anything The Responsible Business would do to improve employment?
How about spawning new businesses out of their own company. It is often the case that a budding entrepreneur will see an opportunity and leave a company to start their own business. It may be taking an idea with them that their existing company was not willing to develop, as was the case with W. L. Gore when he discovered the molecule while working at E. I. DuPont R & D, that eventually became Goretex . He left with the blessings of the company and has literally created thousand of products from that one discovery. DuPont created thousands of jobs but supporting him as he started up.
Or is might be a company that helps set up a supplier that would give them a more dependable supply chain as Consolidated Diesel Corporation, a joint venture of Case Tractor and Cummins Engine, did. They helped build a factory for piston parts next door, which was developed and owned by a member of the original design team for the new business.
Or you could decide you are building capability of managers so they can move on to new positions either on their own or inside other businesses. Kingsford Charcoal set itself such an aim and developed leaders over a dozen Fortune 500 businesses and over two-dozen new business ventures. And they send them off with blessings knowing they would not only know how to run a business, but would hire many others and know how to manage them to continue to tradition of paying new business development forward.
I will add a bit to this story next week about how Kingsford also changed radically the idea of how downsizing can happen and leave every employee and the community stronger.