Today's Business Lessons
Paid for results, not time
(The Philippine Star)
Updated June 9, 2013
Times have changed. I remember thinking that salary is simply money
paid for time rendered in service no matter the work. And then I get so
jealous of the executives with the big offices – they look like they
work less but are paid more, while we mere mortals on the lower floors
slave like crazy but are paid less. My dream then was to climb the
corporate stairs and one day get into one of those fancy offices with
smiling receptionists and secretaries at my beck and call. I’d have one
secretary to make appointments and another to prepare coffee. I reached
that stage and was there for a while.
Now things are totally different. Fancy offices are gone, and rarely
do I see secretaries and assistants lining up behind their senior
officers. Things are no longer the same.
We used to be paid in terms of time rendered. This was a very
“Industrial Age” paradigm, wherein time and motion studies were the
buzzwords. When computers came into the picture, you and I were still
paid for the time we rendered, but we were also rewarded and recognized
for the processing of information and knowledge. This was the Knowledge
Economy, and HR practitioners measured KRAs, KPIs and other such
measurements to determine whether an employee is paid more or less.
Technology enabled people to create; ideas then became the valuable
currency. And the world ushered itself into the Creative Economy.
Expecting to be paid in terms of time rendered became a key obstruction
towards idea generation.
Today office cubicles are down giving way for open spaces, and strict
rigidity of company rules and regulations give way to fun, innovation
and creativity as ideas become the foundation for competitive advantage.
Creativity today requires a breaking away from the imprisonment of
time-based pay. Let me put it this way: as an entrepreneur, I’d rather
pay and reward my people for the ideas they generate, than for the hours
they put into their jobs. This is what gives me my competitive edge.
When I was still in the garments manufacturing business (an extremely
Industrial Age paradigm), I was fascinated with thiscompany which
succeeded in the mail-order business. They opened a few retail stores,
and I’d shop there every time I go to the US and never fail to get their
brochures. The brand went silent for a while and resurges today as a
premium fashion brand with a cult following the likes of Michelle Obama
and American Vogue EIC Anna Wintour. The brand is J Crew. Peek into
their business model, and you’ll find that their creative department is
considered as important as their finance department, and none is above
the other.
You and I are now in the Creative Economy. Don’t just work hard. Be
creative and work creatively. Remove the old idea of wanting to be paid
for time rendered. Begin to accept the fact that we should be paid for
results delivered. And one more thing – that we should be rewarded
(highly, I should say) for the ideas provided.
Average is no longer acceptable in a world of hyper competition which has made excellence an entry-level requirement.
It’s a different world now. So we should look at and do things differently.
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