The Boston Consulting Group is one of the fastest-growing companies for the past five years. It was ranked 3rd at the Fortune’s magazine top 100 companies in the United States. But, according to the same magazine, it is also in a very comfortable positioning on the international scene as well (“100 best companies”, par. 3). There are many aspects of a business that make it successful or, at least, have a major impact on its performance in the marketplace. But among all of them, managing the human capital and being able to ‘unleash’ its potential is maybe the most significant and effective issue for a company. In other words:
“So what is a company? A company comprises a group of people who has creative insight about how it can use all these resources that are available in the world to solve a particular customer’s needs in a creative way. That is the only part you cannot outsource and that function has to be one that the company is superb at.” (Ghosh, p. 1)
The Boston Consulting Group is one of the companies that recognize this to be the most important issue for success as a business. They have made it their principal value to respect individual integrity, capacities, and desire for personal growth and ambitions. By the very nature of their business, the company has to deal with people and their expectations and desires. Many companies would focus most of their ‘energies’ and attention toward the customers and clients in order to reach a favorable business position. By doing this they forget that the most important potential and capability to achieve this goal is not ‘external’ to them but ‘internal’.
It is their ‘labor force’, their human capital, which will make them reach the ultimate goal a business company has: to have a comfortable market share and increase its net profits. At Boston Consulting they have understood this axiom and have made it one of their principal values. For them, their staff and human capital have an equal share of the company’s attention as their clients and customers. And, in fact, this has resulted in a favorable growth trend for the past years on the local US market but even on the international scene as well.
This strong relation tie of the company with its labor force was demonstrated once again during the last financial and economic crisis that began unfolding in the United States last year. Companies around the world faced themselves with tough decisions to be made regarding their labor force and with new people-related challenges in the marketplace. It is commonly recognized that the positive relationship with the staff for a company has a positive impact on the creation of a positive recognition among consumers. So, this company-staff relation helps the first establish a good brand recognition which in turn consolidates the company’s market share. Boston Consulting already had an excellent relationship with their staff but in this difficult time, they made their intention to further enhance this positive relation. They have declared that their strategy for the future was to:
- “How do we build sustainable, competitive people advantage in different global environments?
- How do we effectively link business and personnel strategy?
- How can we attract and develop the best talent and leaders around the world?” (“People management”, par. 2)
Here is where human resources and people management takes an important, strategic, significant and role. Many companies now do recognize that the relationship with their respective labor force was a crucial factor for their business advance. Now they are struggling to regain what they thought not to be as important before but many are encountering difficulties due to the ‘not impressive relation they had with their staff (Ghosh, p. 2).
Supported by their already formed excellent tradition the Boston Consulting can implement new strategies regarding human capital with minimum risk association. What Boston Consulting understood is that leaders are important in a company but it is best not to have only a top-down decision-making process but to include in it all the levels of staff. Thus, its staff member, regardless of their level of work and competencies, will feel more involved in the company’s matters. It will become an incentive factor that will motivate people to enhance their contribution to the company. Their labor and creative output will increase and will benefit both them and the company. This situation in turn will give the company a head start before many other competitors which have first to establish a positive level of relations with their labor force and then try implementing new policies. With this advantage, Boston Consulting will enforce its market positioning and positive customer perception. The end result will be that implementing favorable and people management-focused policies will increase its profits.
This is a good example of how the way you treat your staff influences directly your revenues.
References
100 best companies to work for 2009. The Fortune Magazine. 2009.
Ghosh, G. Guatam Ghosh on human resources: points of view regarding organizations, work and people. The Guatam Ghosh blog. 2005. Web.
People management & human resource competencies. The Boston Consulting Group official website. 2009. Web.