For most managers, the real competition is not in the market place. The real competition is sitting at the next desk. Your job, bonus, promotion and budget is not threatened the moment MegaCorp’s rivals start a Bouncy Penguin promotion. But that nice colleague of yours sitting next to you: that’s the back-stabber who will happily take your promotion, take an outsize share of the puny bonus pool and will push their projects at the expense of yours.
And what of the customers? For most managers, there is only one customer who really counts: the boss. Besides that, there are other lesser customers across the organisation who need to be kept quiet or brought into an unholy alliance of common interests. Customers who actually pay money for Megacorp’s widgets are as scarce as a humble banker. You never see one.
The larger an organisation becomes, the more dysfunctional it becomes because customers and competitors become ever more remote. Managerial success is separated from success in the market place. Instead, there is an arcane set of internal turf wars to prove who is doing best in delivering some agenda that may or may not have real value in the real world. This condition has some unexpected effects for different groups:
- Many managers love a world unencumbered with the reality of dealing with awkward customers and their awkward demands. Life in the bubble of the corporate HQ is much more pleasant than dealing with complaints, pleading with obstructive buyers and generally trying to make money.
- Customers quickly recognise the companies where there is clear blue water between the managers and the people serving them. They are the dinosaurs with service that sucks and it’s all about screwing the last penny out of customers rather than finding new ways of serving and delighting them.
- For competitors, the in-fighting at MegaCorp is wonderful news. You only have to be slightly less lazy, incompetent, inward looking and greedy to beat the dinosaur.
Does MegaCorp remind you of any companies you know?
(Pic: nicasaurusrex cc2.0)
