THERE is a light show on
the office wall - clever, and constantly changing; but it is not
there to entertain the staff. I am amazed as the CEO explains its
true purpose.
On the face of it, they
are a thriving company in the travel business, employing 80 staff,
and I am talking to the entrepreneur who founded this success
story. But, increasingly, he is wondering how he and his staff are
going to survive. It is not the company finances, although there
isn't a moment when he is not thinking about them. In my eyes, he
is a rich and successful businessman; in his own eyes, he is one
bad month away from ruin.
But his main concerns are
the changing nature of business, and, in particular, the speed of
communication. He can still remember when companies used letters to
communicate; then came the fax, and now emails. He receives, on
average, 180 emails a day, each one taking him to a different part
of the world.
Even as he offers this
statistic, I am thinking of the recent research that claimed that
after reading an email it takes us 20 minutes to return to where we
were before. With 180 emails, there is no return, just an endless
ripping-up of the gathered self, giddy with distraction.
And then he has women who
wish to advance in the company, but need to be allowed to advance
on their own terms. A number of companies I visit have plenty of
women under 30, but very few over 30. They are not jobs that allow
for family life; so why would they return after having a child? My
CEO is supportive of their cause, but is aware of shifts among male
workers, too. "Men are changing. They want to spend more time in
the kitchen these days, spend more time with their children. Not
good for business."
And then the light
show.
We leave his glass
office, and step out into the open-plan office where 80 staff sit,
with a computer screen in front of them; and each section -
marketing, IT, customer service, accounts - is his or her own
little kingdom. And there, on the wall, seemingly appearing from
nowhere, a light show of figures, constantly changing. It is a
minute-by-minute exposé of how the company is performing.
I am there at about 11.30
a.m., and the news is that they are slightly behind on their
targets for the morning. For the morning? I had fondly imagined
that companies might reflect on their monthly performance, but I am
clearly not up to speed. "The CEO has to go home knowing whether
it's been a good day," he tells me.
How to make money without
sucking the soul out of everyone involved? And how to stay whole
when the speed of information leaves you shredded? Business is
asking very spiritual questions these days.
Simon Parke tweets at
@simonparke