I’ve worked for so many companies in the last 15 years… the SME’s to the FTSE 500 and I have a deep seated urge to devote every ounce of my energy and focus to achieving what I set out to or succeeding for ‘the business’ in whatever they pay me to execute…
But what happens when the company doesn’t really care?
I spent the last 18 months in a toxic environment, keep your eyes open for my blog “British Brand without British Values” – and it’s not only them it’s many modern day businesses that seem to be getting it wrong.
You’re chastised if your email is more than 3 lines, but you have to send 50 to organise anything if that’s the case, so day to day process is a big waste of time and energy… no one wants to answer their phones, to email back within a diligent time frame…
Innovation eludes the board directors of most businesses because they’re too happy with their filthy great pay packet every month and god forbid they try to over achieve, that might not afford them the ability to ring the company coffers for more time than is necessary if they deliver early.
Internal staff hate the outsider because we come in and get stuff done 5 times faster, making them look bad for busking along without actually putting their head above the parapet; which in turn creates enemies who wish to oust you so they can go back to their mundane normality where their focus is their Friday night or their company bonus (ironically never received because people don’t innovate and the company struggles).
People wonder why retailers and businesses are nose diving into obscurity on a regular basis at the moment and frankly it’s because no one gives a sh*t!
As a consultant who specialises in creating clever commercial partnerships and routes to market that don’t cost the earth, or cost nothing, but yield in the millions of £’s of incremental revenue every year for my clients, it baffles me why things haven’t really changed in the last 5-10 years.
We pat ourselves on the back for up-skilling a few staff to become mental health first-aiders, but staff still hate their work; it’s just a means to a societally driven end, where you have to earn to live and if we all actually genuinely cared about our individual achievements day to day then we’d be so much happier.
I feel lost…
I feel sick almost daily constantly trying to find my fit, find the business that wants someone to innovate and drive them forward, to ensure they steer clear of ambiguity and their future is sustainable. Ever on the hunt for the CEO that wants to push boundaries and achieve greater results so their staff are bouy’d by the overarching success of the brands they manage. But it’s like Harry Potter’s golden snitch…
Fundamentally if you try to push boundaries or call out the issues you’re ostracised and if you’ve got a mental health issue then they put that on you, as if it’s the bipolar guy who’s in the wrong because he must be confused or agitated… I’m agitated because of having to deal with incompetence and all I really want to do is love my day every day, to grow the brands I work with and to inspire people as human beings… but people don’t want that…
Most companies would rather bumble along and classify their growth as “organic” when frankly it’s just blinkered and lazy.
So that’s where I stand today, wondering whats next for me on this journey of discovery… Will I ever find my fit?
I just want to feel what I felt when I was 19… My happiest times were sat in a call centre with a simple directive amongst a bunch of misfit brothers; because the more I learn, the more watching others take shortcuts or bullsh*t each-other, sitting meetings, about meetings, about things that never really get done, or spending company money, upon more company money on outsourcing the jobs you’re paid to do internally, the more it makes me feel sick…
I’m an investors wet dream, because I watch every penny, analyze every element of logic in the directive, constantly innovate and I make millions spending only pounds… the problem is, those that are p*ssing it all away would never let a guy like me in front of the investors that hire them, because it would more likely mean the end of the ivory tower syndrome.
Retailers need to sit up and pay attention, there’s a sustainable approach to every avenue on our high-street, but I fear that there’s a ticking clock out there for the most part if we don’t start to care more about what we’re trying to achieve.
Who knows which way it will go, who knows if I have the energy to even argue the case that long. I hope things change, but on a daily basis I become more disheartened living the reality.
THE BIPOLAR BUSINESSMAN 