Monthly Archives: February 2012

One of the largest, and most constant, challenges in business is unlocking and maximising the potential of relationships with colleagues and clients.

Trusting, loyal and rewarding relationships are the true drivers of our business growth and the foundation of our success as a service business.

The recent launch of the Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) qualification was accompanied by some very interesting research, which calls for leadership to look beyond the numbers when analysing a company and building a strategy.

“Rebooting Business: Valuing the Human Dimension”, conducted by Oxford Economics, reveals that CEOs are paying more attention to areas such as talent development, intellectual property and relationships with suppliers and customers. It also shows that many CEOs believe these factors are key to business growth and future planning.

In the news recently in the US, United Technologies Corporation celebrated investing a billion dollars since 1995 in their employee scholar programme. Over 32,000 employees have been given the opportunity to study for any degree they wish, with full tuition paid for by the company.

This is a superb example of a company completely valuing human dimension and, I am sure, going a long way to building trust and loyalty with its employees. I can only imagine how difficult it must have been in 1995 for the then CEO, George David, to persuade the board to make this long term, almost intangible investment in its workforce.

In a service industry, our people are the brand and incentives beyond competitive pay and bonuses will go a long way to making employees true ambassadors of a company by developing long term, loyal and rewarding relationships.

If we look after our people, the numbers will look after themselves.