Saturday, January 22, 2011

Starting to Cook; All Part of the Post-Colonial Batter:

by Lita Sorensen

The personal is political.

An old saw from the 70’s that nonetheless rings true today. This is especially notable as businesses, families and individuals all over Camp Verde and the greater Verde Valley area are suffering, the same as many localities throughout the nation, in our current economic climate.

Walking in downtown Camp Verde feels more like trekking through a film set for an old Western ghost town than walking through a vibrant small town. Nearly every other building stands empty, with restaurants, shops and other professional service providers abandoning the town one after the other.

And that is why the current management tone and actions of Camp Verde’s largest employer, Cliff Castle Casino, must be questioned.

To some, the “lay-offs” of some 12-20 employees (with rumors that more will be laid off, in search of greater ‘efficiencies’) at Cliff Castle Casino, some of them 10-15 year career veterans, plus the outsourcing of virtually all casino marketing creative functions to an out-of-state agency seems like a necessary part of the landscape in a tough economy.

However, all actions have long term consequences as well as personal and community repercussions.

Businesses succeed because they produce products and/or services that are superior to their competitors—something which Cliff Castle Casino has excelled at. It has been voted the top casino in Arizona for over a decade by Arizona Business Magazine—and in this case Cliff Castle’s model has always been supportive of local communities and even of families (counting among its venues a Kids Quest child care facility, family friendly restaurants and a bowling alley popular with area teenagers).

The abrupt terminations of long term, loyal career employees and the outsourcing of core business functions necessary to the casino without concern for anything but the so-called “bottom line” and without offering alternatives to the effected employees can be called nothing but bad business.

Research also supports this.

In 2005, a study by Deloitte revealed that a majority of firms surveyed had long term negative experiences with outsourcing. Among the experiences detailed was dissatisfaction with cost savings—which failed to materialize, as the entire process was found to be far more complex than initially anticipated. The results included a loss of organizational and communication flexibility, plus expenses not lifted, but shifted from one area to another to another.

According to the study, outsourcing experiences have ruined more businesses reputations that they have built.

The elimination of loyal, locally based staff members and the outsourcing of core job functions sends a message to employees, to the community and to governing bodies that management cannot handle existing human resources and business systems in a productive fashion and that outsiders are needed to develop new ideas and innovative solutions.

More telling is what research says about these certain kinds of business models. Namely, that there is no research and no proof that this works.

There is nothing but anecdotal evidence to support the fact that these practices produce real results. If all these ‘hard-core business decisions’ worked as well as advocates say they do, there would be an abundance of data available to demonstrate their effectiveness. In fact, the opposite is true, so this runs counter to logic.

Social responsibility in the wake of such actions also cannot be overlooked.

Long term local business success and growth in any community is built on attracting and maintaining an essential middle class with the disposable income necessary to keep the economic ball in motion. Short term solutions—scrimping on quality and integrity in the business arena and creating a bigger human and community impact than may be realized— is simply bad business.

No comments:

Post a Comment