The ROI of having a conversation with an employee for a mere $29/month subscription is costing your company a heck of a lot more than you would imagine. For starters, calculate the per hour rate of this employee and the CFO who’s having the conversation. Add them up and subtract $29 from the total. That’s how much it cost the last time this discussion happened. (For a complete picture, contact your local behavioral economist.)
Frankly, it runs into millions of dollars every year across companies around the globe. What a waste! The whole idea of senior leaders having discussions on single or double figure dollar investments with individuals makes me cringe. If you’re response is, “they’re saving money, Sunil. The company’s fiscal health is their responsibility.” And I wouldn’t argue with that. True, it’s their responsibility to keep an eye on any financial leaks but that shouldn’t include auditing one-off subscriptions or negotiating pay raises with employees.
The rationale is that you have to trust your employees to make wise fiscal decisions. For all I know, asking them to build a business case (which, can be a waste of time if over done… particularly for a $20-29/month subscription) for a pay raise or any other investment is far more effective. If you think your employees won’t do a great job or might “make something up” to win that budget. The problem is with the culture. And that is where you should be focusing your energies on.
Who are we kidding? Do we believe the road to becoming a multi-million/billion/trillion dollar organization is to focus on $29 subscriptions or “saving” money by way of negotiating raises or cutting food and beverage budgets? Nope. We won’t. Yes, I know, we can fill an ocean drip-by-drip… but seriously? Is that your plan to grow your company?
The best way to grow your business is to stop obsessing on saving your “resources” and focus on building a culture, nurturing a world-class team, and investing in an effective sales process. Period.
Let’s get our focus right and most importantly, let’s not major in the minor things. Please.