Okay, so the country rages about bailouts and severance packages, causing at least some politicians to exhibit a rare display of conscience. People resent bailing out the privileged and those who squandered their money. Nevertheless, the bailout package passed both houses, mostly out of an act of desperation than a deliberate strategy.
You would think when you receive this kind of rescue from Uncle Sam, the taxpayers of this country, that you would at least be a little bit cool. You would think you would keep a low profile. And above all, you would think you would start tightening the belt, watching the bucks and looking to be more cost effective.
Naw. According to an article in the Los Angeles Times, AIG, which just received $85 billion in bailout money, took its executives on a luxury retreat to one of Southern California’s most expensive resorts. The cost for this little junket was about $440 Thousand. For the morbidly curious, that sum broke down to $200 thousand in rooms, $150 thousand in meals, $23 thousand in spa charges, and, of course $7 thousand for golf. After all, what can company executives do after they just drove one of the leading American corporate icons into the ground but golf?
People are outraged, as well they should be. After the great capitalists of the world came hat and hand to Uncle Sam, you would think they would show just a little discretion. Apparently, it hasn’t sunk in yet that the salad days are over, especially at the expense of the American public, the person who has to work for a living for a lot less than several million a year in bonuses.
So has your company gotten the message? Are you still operating as if the salad days have not yet faded out of view? Do you squander money and offer bonuses not to the workers who can keep your business afloat but to the executives who are running into the ground?
Have you reevaluated your expenditures and reviewed what works and what doesn’t? Hopefully, you have figured out how to cut your costs and increase efficiency. As your competitors fall by the wayside in this tough economy, are you looking for ways to pick up their clients and increase your own business?
To do so you need to conduct corporate research and business credit reports to be sure the clients you do pick up can still afford to pay you. As we have seen, bad credit clients can lead to disaster. Yours. And for the employees you do recruit right now, you should be running background checks to make sure they will not bring you embarrassment, or cause you the expense of litigation. You have to be sure your new job candidates can actually do what they say they can do. Good hires can be very beneficial. Bad hires, at a time like this, especially, can cause serious pain.
There are valuable lessons to be gained by history. History, among other things, offers templates for survival. Taking a glance back and thinking in modern mindsets, we can not only survive but prevail in these times. It takes more work. Most of you have been working hard enough, and now you may be working harder yet. Be grateful. The other side of it is that you may not be working at all.
