Take Two

One more quick post- take five minutes and read this article from Portfolio magazine by Jay Leno (yes, that Jay Leno) on what American Car Companies need to do to improve their products.  It’s a keeper.

Read an interesting story this morning in the (London) Times Online that BP is doing away with their 9-day fortnight (side note- I love the term fortnight).  Under the program, every two weeks if you have your hours in you could take Friday off.  A three day weekend every two weeks.  Brilliant!  Now, in the name of efficiency and what not, this program has been canceled.  That’s because the HR folks at BP are idiots.

Not to sound too much like Chairman Mao but happy employees are productive employees.  Employees who have benefits (that cost the employer nothing) taken away are not happy and ergo, less likely to go to the mat for you.  Yet time and time again, I watch large (and sometimes small) companies nickle and dime their folks in the name of increased productivity.  Jason Calacanis, the founder and CEO of the new search engine Mahalo, sees things differently (specifically numbers 3 and 12).  He buys lunch at the office for his crew four days a week.  Why?  Think of the amount of time lost by going to lunch.  Now put that time to work at the office, even if it’s just colleagues shooting the bull.  At my firm, we come up with some of our best ideas in random conversation.  Ditto with the free food at Google.  They spend millions on free lunch and dinner but get it back in spades in productivity.  It is, to overuse a phrase, a win-win situation.

Is it any wonder the smartest minds go to start-up companies?