Business case

Attendant to the dazzling managerial incompetencies of Gate Gourmet in recent days, it struck me how fortunate I should think myself to be employed by a company that does not deliberately induce industrial action so that it can sack its staff over a loudhailer in order to replace them with still cheaper casual labour. I now realise that my employer's apparently generous attitude should be ascribed to FUBAR forecasting rather than to any sense of moral obligation. Management has been incapable of gazing a couple of months into the future to see what our crystal ball holds in terms of sales and revenue; an absolute fundamental of any business.
My promotion — without salary rise — has proved serendipitous, however. Just as the executive in the Netherlands were starting to get twitchy again, I have provided the information that reveals all, gleaned with no little cajoling, supplication and bloody mindedness from relevant sources. And that information is not great. Simple mathematics across the operations group will now demonstrate that we are carrying five people more than we should be.
What will happen now? Management will decide how long they can hold out for without releasing anyone (I hope) and then dismiss those who are doing the least work (again) rather than firing the idiots in sales who are too lazy and too stupid to sell the work we have skills in. If any of them actually took the time to understand how we work, the business would run far more smoothly. Instead, we'll whittle the operations group away until it reaches the relevant profit margin without touching sales, for as we all know, the purpose of business is to make money.
Well no, it isn't actually. In business, just as in individuals' daily lives, money is not an end in itself but a means to other things. If a business is successful it will recruit new staff, invest in emerging revenue streams, improve conditions to retain its better staff, diversify... all of which cost money. Indeed a company that has made a great deal of money and has more assets than it can make use of is ripe for take-over. It is easy to tell us that shareholders are interested only in the bottom line, but the bottom line for shareholders is selling at the right moment to get a return on their investment.
The purpose of business is to do well. That means providing a service that customers require to a high standard, while encouraging staff to do well and rewarding those who have invested their faith and money in the enterprise. Are we heading towards this principle? Or are we a bunch of self-interested under-motivated whingers?