Growth

John So’s honeymoon is over. He rode the crest on a wave of popularity towards the end of the Commonwealth Games 2006 but now that the party is (well and truly) over and everyone is back to work, the hard business of running a City Council is dropping on John So’s desk with the proverbial thud. John So is no longer everyone’s bro.

The fuss? Parking tickets in Melbourne CBD. Apparently, a parking attendant spoke to some research officers and told them there was a daily quota. Each attendant/officer had to issue over 30 parking tickets a day, or face the sack! Personally, I have been spared the harsh piece of paper on my windscreen, even when I have exceeded the time limit on a number of occasions. I have however, experienced such pains before and often, they fell unjustified.

The point is – financial performance is wrecking untold damage to countless workers’ well-being, I think. If parking officers can be under the pump and has included in his or her KPI, such “measurable” parameters as parking tickets issued, you know financial performance truly has become a dirty word. Surely, these officers’ job is to ensure orderly parking and prevention of hogging of parking spaces to ensure the traffic ticks along with minimum hitches? That is their job surely, and not enhance revenue?

The malaise of financial bottom lines is a modern day plague. I blame the stock analysts. They started it. They measured company performance by looking at growth in profits (amongst others of course, but that is a main one, I’d imagine). No matter how strong and vibrant a company appears to be, if there is no growth in profits, the stock price does not rise – “perform” – and this could lead to calls for remedial actions such as changing CEO, mergers or acquisitions, etc. Where does the chase end? Is growth a perpetual thing? Doesn’t growth stall at some stage for all organizations? Is it essential for survival?

I accept there must be growth of some sort, so that we do not become complacent and progress can be made. However if we are so obsessed with it as to be harsh to people around us, it is time to take stock and re-analyse things (pardon the pun)…