Tuesday 22 February 2011

Business

My daily commute takes me around 35 minutes one-way (on a bicycle), so every day I have about 70 minutes of private "thinking time". It is a great way to wake up in the morning (especially the last few days as it was sunny and around minus 5C), and to switch-off from work in the evening. But sometimes I can't help to reflect on the day at work that has just passed, and today was one of those days. I was thinking to myself that "without me, this company would have been bankrupt long ago" but also that "with me, this company will be bankrupt soon". Once again we are running out of money and without fresh investments by the owners we will have spent all our cash before the end of March. And the big question is: will the owners inject fresh funds this time?
It is easy to see what mistakes have been made in the past. We have been spending loads of money on people with a quick talk and a sexy story, and my bosses are extremely gullible, don't do background checks and don't check these stories, so we have been attracting con-artists disguised as reliable business partners as honey attracts bees. I have warned my bosses innumerable times, played "devil's advocate" every other day, and sometimes they listen but most of the time they don't. Hence the piles of money we have been losing.
We currently have 5 marketing type alpha-males in our office, and one more conservative person (me), so it is hard for me to steer all their ridiculous plans in the right direction. They are great at making plans, networking, getting people together, and are tireless in designing half-baked new business initiatives. The strategy of the company changes every 15 minutes and depends mostly on the latest con-artist they have spoken with.
It is true: these kinds of people are needed in every company - but we have too many of them. The skills they have I lack: I hate networking with people I don't like and I am conservative with spending money on "new stuff", and they easily allocate tens of thousands of euros to unproven and highly doubtful business ideas. Time will tell who is right: if I am out of a job by this time next month I guess I was right after all.

1 comment:

sgboy said...

can i have your boss's contact? I have a good business idea for them too!