Singapore
There is always lots of talk about innovation and creativity in the workplace, but what happens when the economy slows down and companies are struggling to breathe? Cutting costs, sacking people and taking short cuts is always the first measure. People panic and they can’t think. It is all about survival.
Let’s sit back and look long term for once. How do we survive? And what do most people do during a crisis to survive? Innovate. Innovation will pull us out of these tough time. So, innovation from top down and all throughout all organizations- it needs to be encouraged. From the folks sweeping the floors to the ivory tower- it need to be a group effort…and it needs to be fostered.
At the company that my partner, James Irvine, and I run, called Egyii, we focus on personal development. Our focus in on the finance industry,,,and of course it is in a mess. We are seeing that, historically (back in 1997 during the Asian crisis), the financial institutions dropped all focus on people development and went into survival mode. It took years to regain the right people, the right teams, to face the fast growing demands in Asia. Will we see this again this time around?
Companies and institutions need to look long term at people, for innovation and development. People are your greatest asset…so pull yourself out of survival mode and start focusing on where you can make a difference. It will work both short and long term.
