Some organisations treat  people badly as they pursue profit at all costs.

Yet this is short-termism of the worst sort.

As you travel around and visit various companies, you will invariably see a poster or plaque in reception claiming ‘Our people are our Greatest Asset’ or “We are Investors in People:”.

Yet few of those companies act as if they believe what they say in reception.

People are an organisations’s greatest asset – but only if the organisation can release their potential, their contribution, their innovation, their ideas.

This doesn’t just happen – it happens when the organisation creates a high potential culture, appropriate procedures, and most of all – development opportunities for the staff to keep adding to their skills and knowledge.

People are not ‘human resources’ but they can be a valuable source of innovation.

‘People’ ands ‘profit’ are not in any way mutually exclusive – they are inextricably linked. Organisartikons that fail to recognise – and act on – this are doomed to poor industrial relations and low contribution levels from their staff.