Feeling under siege? Consider the reflections of military strategists.
Sabrià Miracle, Frederic
Price wars, hostile takeovers of weakened competitors, industrial espionage, guerrilla tactics in marketing: it would appear that, as in love and war, all’s fair when fighting for survival in the business world. But war requires strategies, too, and one must be familiar with these if victory is to be gained on your own particular battlefield.
Lack of commitment is not a modern ailment. Fayol, Barnard and Simon saw the problem a century ago.
Rosanas Martí, Josep Maria
Today we hear voices raised about high turnover, lack of commitment and job insecurity. Companies take advantage of loopholes to employ workers on short-term contracts, re-employing them after a period of forced unpaid leave as if they were completely new hires. Employers want to avoid too many commitments to their employees. They want to be able to hire and fire at will in order to maintain profitability in adverse market conditions. At the same time, many workers want to be free to seize market opportunities as they arise, especially in this fast-changing, so-called knowledge economy. Such practices are a clear sign that industrial relations today stand on a very different footing from a few decades ago, when both sides wanted the same thing: stability. Somewhere along the way, this common objective was abandoned.