Why would anyone subject themselves to this?!?

I guess they have the right motivation!

1. How can CEO’s improve their organizations based on what is happening at the grass roots level?

2. Are executives in touch with their employees’ needs and concerns?

3. Are managers at all levels delivering the same message throughout the business organization?

4. What is the moral like at all levels in a business organization?

5. Do employees have all of the things they need to effectively complete their jobs?

6. Are employees utilizing all of their time efficiently and effectively?

7. What would employees say about a company if no one was watching?

They highlight companies of all sizes, such as Waste Management (Larry O’Donnell, President and C.O.O.), 7-Eleven (Joseph M. DePinto, President and C.E.O.), Hooters (Coby G. Brooks, President and C.E.O.), White Castle (Dave Rife, Owner/Executive Board Member) and Churchill Downs (William C. Carstanjen, C.O.O.) and GSI Commerce to name a few.  The show can serve as a free case study on organizational behavior, executive management and developing employee moral.  You can see the show on Sunday Nights at 9:00pm CT on CBS.

Jobs has a way of bringing a product to market like a preacher on Sunday morning delivers his message poetically to parishioners that are intently listening. Apple has become a modern day religion of sorts where individuals feel compelled to stay loyal to them and spend precious hours of their lives in lines waiting for their next fix. The products delivered by Apple seem to set trends instead of follow them and even individuals that vow to never buy one of their products somehow seem to. Can the Aggie professors be right?

As I write some of this article on my ipod touch it makes me wonder…Am I a member of the church of Apple? Prof. Heidi Campbell of Texas A&M University had a valid point when she referred to the loyalty of Apple as “implicit religion”. If Apple is the new tech religion, their competitors need to take notice and build their own denominations based on Apple’s success. Until they do, Pastor Jobs will keep stealing their members by delivering his powerful message one product at a time.

I pondered these questions often realizing more and more with each passing day that I was working for things I couldn’t enjoy because I was to busy. There is nothing wrong with having nice things and working to provide, but when the process has more value than the product something is wrong. Simply put when working to provide becomes your life instead of supports your life, there is definitely something off balance.

I was living to work instead of working to live. This is a predicament that many of us find ourselves in. We work so hard to provide for our families that we rarely get to spend time with them. The process has become more important than the product. What is the product?

The product that is the end result from the process of working hard should be a more enjoyable life. It should consist of more time with the family, more enjoyment for those you love and more time for the things you are passionate about. Too often, this is not the case.

We spend our lives living to work and when we retire, finally begin to work to live. What is more important to you? Are you so engulfed in the process that you’ve forgotten the product and what you work so hard for?

To add insult to injury, BP has spent millions of dollars on a marketing campaign to improve their image in the public. These dollars would have been better served in the hands of the people that have been effected by this disaster. The best marketing campaign for the company would have been reacting quickly to the spill, refunding the lost wages of the small business owners that were impacted by the spill and showing a community that they actually care about them. The problem is they only care about the bottom line which according to many estimates looks great for the second quarter regardless of the oil spill.

In their efforts to spin the crisis in pathetic commercials, they have the nerve to act as if even though they destroyed the environment and jobs, they still should receive a pat on the back because they hired the people whose jobs they took to help clean it up! Seriously! This is all a result of poor planning by a global company that had plenty of resources to prevent this disaster in the first place. Hopefully the new CEO will do a better job of planning for future problems that may arise from offshore drilling. After all the people of the gulf coast need and deserve their lives back!