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7 My Company Does … What Exactly?

It is an amazing and sad fact of modern corporate life that many members of an office’s staff will possess only a meagre knowledge of the very company that employs them. Always avoid being one of them.

As corporations expand merge and get taken over by larger firms, a feeling of disinterest and disorientation may grow. The company becomes departmentalized, with often minimal co-operation between those departments. Sometimes rivalry, or even hostility, arises between one department and another. Competition grows internally and staff feel played off against one another.

Knowledge Equals Power

To succeed in your job, whatever your role, you should aim to understand as much as you can about the company itself. Knowledge equals empowerment. The more you know, the better your chances of advancing in your chosen career. (This is not the same thing as knowing your job.)

EXERCISE:

Try answering the following questions:

1 What is the full official name of the company you work for? If there are initials in the title what do those initials stand for?

2 What is the exact address of its headquarters.

3 How many branches does it have overseas and where are they?

4 Who is the owner of the company or who are the directors?

5 What exactly does your company do?

6 What is your company’s main product/service?

7 How is that product/service marketed?

8 Who buys it?

9 In what sort of numbers do they buy it?

10 Do clients buy your products/services because they have to or because they are persuaded to?

11 How good is your product/service – what sort of reputation does it have in the market?

12 Name your company’s main rivals.

13 How do their products/services differ from your own?

14 What image would you say your company would like to present to its clients/customers?

15 Can you describe the prime objectives of your company?

16 How long has your company existed?

17 What role does your department play within your company?

18 If your department were to be surgically removed from your company would the place close down?

19 If your company were to close down tomorrow, would its clients/customers be any worse off for no longer having your product/service available?

20 Is your company running at a profit or loss?

It’s important for your own career that you identify your role in the company as a whole.

The success of your job relies on the success of your company.

Everyone in a business should be pulling in the same direction – but that very rarely happens when the business is large and unwieldy and communication channels faulty. So how much can you do to ensure this doesn’t happen, or repair any damage that has already occurred?

When communications in a company break down, the first thing everyone does is ignore it and the second is to start casting the hot brick of blame once it has been brought to their attention.

Staff blame their managers for never telling them what’s going on. Managers claim they call weekly meetings or issue magazines or handouts but nobody ever attends those meetings or reads the literature. Anyway, we decided to lose the blame culture, didn’t we?

So – before you start saying it’s out of your hands, take time to make a list of anything you could do to improve matters …

The Facts of Life

You need to understand the culture of your own company and the changes that are going on within it.

Change can be frightening and stressful, but your stress will be lessened if you take any opportunity offered to attend open discussions. Without a formal communication process you will end up relying on rumours and office gossip – which is like learning the facts of life from a classmate.

Whenever possible become involved in your company as well as your job. Such involvement will act as a good base when raising your profile, too. If the communication lines are not in place treat this as a barrier to your objectives and see whether it is a surmountable hurdle. Could you ask for the information? Could you set up the meetings?

Baffling though the concept may be, a lot of people will do things if they are asked properly. If someone has information you need or want you could try asking them to tell you. If this sounds simple, it’s because it is – though you may still tend to prefer to go via the round-about system of muttering and complaining.

One – and possibly the easiest – way to find out more about your company is to ask. Saying: ‘I would like to learn more about this company, do you have any literature or information, please?’ is showing an attitude that would rarely get discouraged. This will be perceived by the more aware manager as: ‘A member of staff showing an interest’. At best they will settle down, dewy-eyed, to light up that favourite old briar pipe while you squat breathless at their knees to hear: ‘The History of Flemming and Potts PLC’. Or at worst they’ll accuse you of spying and have you escorted from the premises. It’s worth the risk, though, and there’s usually a video or brochure kicking around somewhere which they can toss in your direction for starters.

Most reception areas are littered with company publications for the perusal of their clients and customers. It’s an interesting concept that in five minutes a visitor to the company can often discover more about a firm than an employee who has worked there for five years.

Read

Most large companies command a high-profile position in the press these days. Study the financial section of your newspaper on a regular basis and look for any mention of not only your own company, but of your main competitors, too. If your company is listed on the stock market, keep a weather eye on the state of the share price – this can often be a strong indicator of the current mood of your firm.

Even smaller companies should have literature they produce for clients. Have a browse some time – most brochures are very good at stating clearly the aims of the company and describing its particular product or service.

Ensure you read bulletin boards and any company literature which is circulated, such as the in-house magazines. Don’t just skim these for any articles you feel are relevant to your department or job, read through the entire material to gain an insight into all aspects of your company’s news.

If you become departmentalized you will be so bogged down with your own job that you will lose track of the way your company does business, and your prioritizing will become illogical. You could find yourself becoming irritated with clients who hold you up from your daily chores. When you answer an outside phone line you may sound offhand and unhelpful, even before you’ve discovered the identity of the caller.

Meetings Without Tears

If informative meetings for staff are called do your best to attend them. If you can’t go because you have other commitments, ask someone who is going to take notes for you. Always show an interest – it encourages managers out of their little hidey-holes.

Never view these get-togethers as an opportunity for a grumble, either. Bosses are like tortoises – the first whiff of aggro and they’ll retreat back into their shells. Many managers will actually avoid calling staff meetings because they tend to degenerate into unruly mud-slinging sessions.

To give the right impression, it’s important that positive noises are made by staff at these meetings. Instead of arriving with a long list of grievances and complaints under your arm, try taking some positive ideas and suggestions along, too.

If you are a manager never underestimate the power of effective communications within your own company. Staff will do a job just because they are told to, but they will do that job much better if they understand why they are doing it and what the overall objectives are.

Making Yourself Visible

Raising your profile within your company is essential for promotion. It’s easy for you to become faceless. Often when you deal with colleagues they’re just a voice on a phone. It’s human nature to distrust what you can’t see, so if they take a long time answering your query or don’t give priority to your requests you may begin to view them as deliberately obstructive.

It is vital, then, that you make time to meet one another – especially if you work in a large firm. Encouraging all-staff seminars where a representative from each department explains their group’s job, objectives and problems, leads to more regular co-operation as well as a sense of unity. Otherwise, you wait till the office Christmas party and, upon seeing that ‘invisible’ colleague in a state of merry drunkenness, have your worst fears confirmed that they’re a wastrel and a layabout.

Socialize

Many firms use social events as useful team-building occasions. Whereas you would probably balk at the idea of attending a boringly presented company seminar outside office hours, you might be keener to join in organized sporting events or outings.

Team sports against rival companies aren’t only a method of letting off steam, they are also a valuable way to get various departments galvanized into co-operative gangs. Seeing colleagues outside the office environment forces you to view them in a fresher, less stereotypical light, too.

ACTION PLAN:

1 Make time to find out more about the company you work for. Information-gather, attend meetings and read company literature.

2 Plan ways to improve communications between colleagues and departments.

3 Raise your profile within your company.