Insights from Wendy Blattner

Earlier this fall, and against our advice, a client pulled back on what had always been an important investor communication. After disappointing year-end results, the CEO believed it was simply not worth the investment. His stark perspective was this: Do without the project or another FTE.

It's hard to argue with brutal reality. Nevertheless let me try.

Companies often like to say that people are their “most important asset” — after all, how many times have you read that phrase in an annual report? The problem is, not all companies behave as if they really mean it. In this particular economic climate, that could be their loss. While it may seem counterintuitive in a time of deep job-market malaise, investment in employee engagement has probably never been more important. And it’s not simply a matter of “building morale among the survivors.”  An increasing body of evidence shows employee engagement improves performance, an objective that is at least as important in tough times as shaving costs.

Recently, I was reminded of a story in Freakonomics that explores the idea of name as destiny. In it, the authors debunk a good part of the theory. They write about two brothers named Winner and Loser (what were the parents thinking?), and of course what one would expect is that Winner would succeed and Loser would not.  As it turns out, however, this wasn’t the case.  In fact, the extreme opposite occurred. Loser became a successful police detective, well respected in his community (he now goes by “Lou”). As for Winner, poor guy — he ended up in jail.

Is name destiny?