iMO I don't think there was one regulation put in place for no reason. They are put in place because there is abuse by companies that harm people. Historically corporations do not police themselves other than to increase profits at any cost.
Sad but true. Years ago many corporations operated to maximize stakeholder value, but hedge funds and private equity found them easy targets for takeover.
As the owner of a small design/build company in Vermont who learned my trade working for others, I learned through my own experience how much better I worked for fair employers than the ones that were users who didn’t care. I also was able to gauge the success of employers who insisted on great quality at fair prices versus ones that skimped as much as they could get away with while charging as much as they could.
So, I did my best to foster a work environment for my employees that I can best describe as being family oriented and that provided opportunity to work happily to produce a product they could be proud of at decent wages with bonus opportunities on every project based on profit that gave each employee ownership of the outcome. Experienced employees and managers were expected to foster learning and respect down the line to enhance growth of the individual. If someone was unable to thrive in this environment and created an unpleasant environment for others, I seldom had to fire anyone as they usually left on their own. It was usually dissatisfaction of their own making.
The customers were kept informed and involved throughout their project starting with being included at every phase of the designing towards their stated budget including itemized estimating that showed both my costs and what I required for profit. By being very clear and upfront and willing to be flexible for changes initiated prior to necessitating dismantling of work already completed with no up charge unless my costs increased, the customer was also able to have ownership in the process.
To complete the overall satisfaction of both customer and employees, they were both invited to interact with each other personally which tended to foster warm feelings all around. Everyone had opportunity to thrive and have satisfaction.
Sound like utopia? I found that happiness and satisfaction brought loyalty from employee/partners who worked hard at doing their best and were rewarded for it. The happiness along with involvement in day to day decisions had a great effect on the customers who tended to love the process. I didn’t have to work hard at keeping everybody in line or worry that anybody was slacking.
Were there problems? Of course, but nothing like the problems I saw my peers coping with. With open book itemized estimating that showed true costs that anyone could check and showing my hoped for profit, customers who insisted on a better deal showed themselves as potential problems and were politely told they needed to find a builder who was a better match for them.
Did I preplan this out come? No, it developed on its own. It started with me learning what made me happy or unhappy while working for other companies. Then I started doing subcontract work with a small crew. As I became dissatisfied with being a subcontractor and wanting to be involved more in the total process, I started taking on small jobs with my own customers. Eventually, I was offered employment opportunities through architects in my area. That was fairly satisfying, except for the fact that I was expected to meet budgets created by the architects who sometimes designed phases of the job that were out of the ordinary. Sometimes you can draw something on paper that doesn’t come together very well in the three-dimensional world and architects sometimes tend to be on the artistic side and unable to design towards their customers budget and expected me to make up for it. So I in my practical way started looking for people who would let me design for them towards their budget and found I could be quite successful at it. Running an office was not my forte so my wife became the office manager. She and I together did the design work and worked with the customers. I did the estimating, she did the books. Since working with my hands was my love and what got me into this in the first place, I worked as foreman on the jobs where I worked with my crew the way I liked to be treated. It all came together organically and showed me a way to do business differently and more satisfactorily. I may not have made a fortune, but I couldn’t have asked for a better way of living and I did quite well financially. Unfortunately, I was steered into the corporate world by my wife who saw financial opportunity by getting involved in insurance work and we bought a franchise that changed my life and created a situation I had to separate myself from after six years of high stress drama.
I give you this story as a way to show that it may be possible to create equitable ways of doing business that are fair to both the customer and the employees. I would like to think that our government could make it possible to regulate in a way that makes this doable on a grander scale to some degree. Giving the upper hand to big business is not going to get us there. Big businesses doesn’t care about the little guy that does the work or giving up any of the profit they can suck out of the customer. Unregulated big businesses doesn’t care and takes from both ends as they even work to dodge giving back by way of taxes to the infrastructure that allows them to operate and trade worldwide. Big businesses should not be able to enrich themselves on the backs of the people that make it possible without making it worthwhile to their workers and their customers. All take with no give has led us to where we are today.
Carl, thanks for sharing. It's a great example of how an entrepreneur can create a business that thrives through a focus on maximizing stakeholder value. Capitalism at it's best! But today's corporate focus on maximizing shareholder value has created a world where egalitarian businesses can be attacked as inefficient and taken over by corporate raiders.
Exactly. Regulation is necessary to create equitable practices. If big business isn’t doing it for themselves, then they need to be regulated. Trickle down only works if big business participates in a way that is good for all their shareholders, customers and workers together. Big business also needs to pay into the system that allows them to thrive.
iMO I don't think there was one regulation put in place for no reason. They are put in place because there is abuse by companies that harm people. Historically corporations do not police themselves other than to increase profits at any cost.
Sad but true. Years ago many corporations operated to maximize stakeholder value, but hedge funds and private equity found them easy targets for takeover.
As the owner of a small design/build company in Vermont who learned my trade working for others, I learned through my own experience how much better I worked for fair employers than the ones that were users who didn’t care. I also was able to gauge the success of employers who insisted on great quality at fair prices versus ones that skimped as much as they could get away with while charging as much as they could.
So, I did my best to foster a work environment for my employees that I can best describe as being family oriented and that provided opportunity to work happily to produce a product they could be proud of at decent wages with bonus opportunities on every project based on profit that gave each employee ownership of the outcome. Experienced employees and managers were expected to foster learning and respect down the line to enhance growth of the individual. If someone was unable to thrive in this environment and created an unpleasant environment for others, I seldom had to fire anyone as they usually left on their own. It was usually dissatisfaction of their own making.
The customers were kept informed and involved throughout their project starting with being included at every phase of the designing towards their stated budget including itemized estimating that showed both my costs and what I required for profit. By being very clear and upfront and willing to be flexible for changes initiated prior to necessitating dismantling of work already completed with no up charge unless my costs increased, the customer was also able to have ownership in the process.
To complete the overall satisfaction of both customer and employees, they were both invited to interact with each other personally which tended to foster warm feelings all around. Everyone had opportunity to thrive and have satisfaction.
Sound like utopia? I found that happiness and satisfaction brought loyalty from employee/partners who worked hard at doing their best and were rewarded for it. The happiness along with involvement in day to day decisions had a great effect on the customers who tended to love the process. I didn’t have to work hard at keeping everybody in line or worry that anybody was slacking.
Were there problems? Of course, but nothing like the problems I saw my peers coping with. With open book itemized estimating that showed true costs that anyone could check and showing my hoped for profit, customers who insisted on a better deal showed themselves as potential problems and were politely told they needed to find a builder who was a better match for them.
Did I preplan this out come? No, it developed on its own. It started with me learning what made me happy or unhappy while working for other companies. Then I started doing subcontract work with a small crew. As I became dissatisfied with being a subcontractor and wanting to be involved more in the total process, I started taking on small jobs with my own customers. Eventually, I was offered employment opportunities through architects in my area. That was fairly satisfying, except for the fact that I was expected to meet budgets created by the architects who sometimes designed phases of the job that were out of the ordinary. Sometimes you can draw something on paper that doesn’t come together very well in the three-dimensional world and architects sometimes tend to be on the artistic side and unable to design towards their customers budget and expected me to make up for it. So I in my practical way started looking for people who would let me design for them towards their budget and found I could be quite successful at it. Running an office was not my forte so my wife became the office manager. She and I together did the design work and worked with the customers. I did the estimating, she did the books. Since working with my hands was my love and what got me into this in the first place, I worked as foreman on the jobs where I worked with my crew the way I liked to be treated. It all came together organically and showed me a way to do business differently and more satisfactorily. I may not have made a fortune, but I couldn’t have asked for a better way of living and I did quite well financially. Unfortunately, I was steered into the corporate world by my wife who saw financial opportunity by getting involved in insurance work and we bought a franchise that changed my life and created a situation I had to separate myself from after six years of high stress drama.
I give you this story as a way to show that it may be possible to create equitable ways of doing business that are fair to both the customer and the employees. I would like to think that our government could make it possible to regulate in a way that makes this doable on a grander scale to some degree. Giving the upper hand to big business is not going to get us there. Big businesses doesn’t care about the little guy that does the work or giving up any of the profit they can suck out of the customer. Unregulated big businesses doesn’t care and takes from both ends as they even work to dodge giving back by way of taxes to the infrastructure that allows them to operate and trade worldwide. Big businesses should not be able to enrich themselves on the backs of the people that make it possible without making it worthwhile to their workers and their customers. All take with no give has led us to where we are today.
Carl, thanks for sharing. It's a great example of how an entrepreneur can create a business that thrives through a focus on maximizing stakeholder value. Capitalism at it's best! But today's corporate focus on maximizing shareholder value has created a world where egalitarian businesses can be attacked as inefficient and taken over by corporate raiders.
Exactly. Regulation is necessary to create equitable practices. If big business isn’t doing it for themselves, then they need to be regulated. Trickle down only works if big business participates in a way that is good for all their shareholders, customers and workers together. Big business also needs to pay into the system that allows them to thrive.