The Good Jobs Strategy
10/08/18 • 53 min
Read more on the Good Jobs Strategy
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Zeynep Ton is a Professor of Operations Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
She studies the retail sector and the way that some firms have invested in paying more and doing more for their workers. She studied firms like QuikTrip, Trader Joes, Mercador in Spain - she found that firms that treat their workers better achieve better results.
Quik Trips profit is double the retail average - all of her firms are more profitable and show consistent growth. And this is work that needs doing in 2012 The Independent reported that only 1 in 7 British supermarket workers earned a living wage.
We’ll talk about how they make their jobs happier but the key parts are they make some key decisions upfront (1) offer less (2) standardise and empower their teams (3) they train their workers to do all of the jobs and (4) they operate with slack - with spare capacity.
When I studied Zeynep's work - and even more so when I chatted to her I thought there's something in this that every single company can use.
Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/eatsleepworkrepeat.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Read more on the Good Jobs Strategy
If you like this the easiest way to get it is to subscribe on Apple podcasts - give us a rating while you’re there.
Zeynep Ton is a Professor of Operations Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management.
She studies the retail sector and the way that some firms have invested in paying more and doing more for their workers. She studied firms like QuikTrip, Trader Joes, Mercador in Spain - she found that firms that treat their workers better achieve better results.
Quik Trips profit is double the retail average - all of her firms are more profitable and show consistent growth. And this is work that needs doing in 2012 The Independent reported that only 1 in 7 British supermarket workers earned a living wage.
We’ll talk about how they make their jobs happier but the key parts are they make some key decisions upfront (1) offer less (2) standardise and empower their teams (3) they train their workers to do all of the jobs and (4) they operate with slack - with spare capacity.
When I studied Zeynep's work - and even more so when I chatted to her I thought there's something in this that every single company can use.
Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/eatsleepworkrepeat.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Previous Episode
Adam Grant - Optimism about work culture
Professor Adam Grant is the most important business writer in the world - a man who says his study is focussing on how to make work suck less.
Adam is author of books like Give and Take, Option B, Originals, he's also the host of a chart topping podcast on work culture called Work Life with TED.
Adam Grant has been Wharton’s top-rated professor for seven straight years - his books have told over a million copies .
Give and Take examines why helping others drives our success. Originals explores how individuals champion new ideas and leaders fight groupthink; Option B, with Sheryl Sandberg, is a #1 bestseller on facing adversity and building resilience.
For more about Bridgwater read here http://uk.businessinsider.com/bridgewater-ranked-employees-by-performance-2018-3
The full episode is live on the website: eatsleepworkrepeat.fm
Become a member at https://plus.acast.com/s/eatsleepworkrepeat.
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Next Episode
Jeffrey Pfeffer: Dying for a Paycheck
Today’s guest is regarded as one of the most influential management thinkers in the world largely because he considers themes and human behaviours that others avoid discussing. Jeffrey Pfeffer is Professor of Organisational Behaviour at Graduate School of Business at Stanford University. He’s author of books like Management BS, Power and most recently Dying for a Paycheck and it’s the last two books that we mainly discuss in today’s chat.
Read Dying for a Paycheck and Power
Jeffrey mentions this New York Times article about the stress of someone in the legal profession.
His book Power has become a global best seller largely because it is a manual for the Machiavellian. It’s a modern day version of Niccolò Machiavelli’s 16th century book The Prince. It’s not that Pfeffer believes this is what we should behave like to be our best selves but rather if we don’t behave like this we’re going to be exploited.
In the course notes for Jeffrey's stanford class on power he says that "insufficient sensitivity to and skill coping with power have cost Stanford graduates promotions opportunities and even their jobs".
Fundamentally the mistake we’re all making according to Pfeffer is believing that the world is fair. I know I’m guilty of this. Whether you watch US politics or British politics but I certainly find myself looking at current events thinking that a reckoning will come when the good guys will win and sort things out. Spoiler alert. The good guys don’t win. And the source for that point is history.
Pfeffer's belief is that in business they don't win so arm yourself. He believes that leaders often ascend to their position not through an innate goodness but because they understand the rules of power.
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