Category Archives: Strategy

Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? Part VIII

(III) Workers are interchangeable, therefore we should strive to be linchpins, irreplaceable within the work force. (continue)

A day’s work should not be a remuneration from work = pay. We are willing to sell ourselves so cheaply. Is that it? The transaction is over? The relationship is unfair. Godin is asking you to stop following instructions, and start being an artists? Someone who dreams up new ideas and makes them real, to stop being a cog, and act like a human being. You should become an artist at work. The marketer can also be an artist Godin contends.

It’s not that you can’t, it’s that you won’t be a linchpin. Godin believes that being the linchpin is the most financially responsible choice, and not a risk whatsoever. The new American dream is a lie. The thinking that “that’s not my jobs” is destructive. Employees are more willing to give refunds then deal with conflict: a) keep your head down, b) follow instructions, c) show up on time, d) work hard, e) suck it up.

What do employees really want? Top ten things:

  1. Responsibility, and challenges,
  2. Flexibility
  3. A stable environment
  4. Money
  5. Professional development
  6. Peer recognition
  7. Stimulating colleagues and bosses
  8. Job content that is exciting
  9. Organizational culture to achieve
  10. Location/community.

Notes from Seth Godin’s Lynchpin

Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? Part VII

(III) Workers are interchangeable, therefore we should strive to be linchpins, irreplaceable within the work force.

Suppliers Dilemma for Workers

People have been burying their genius, or misallocating themselves in order to fit a round-peg into a square hole. By not being innovative, these labourers have limited bargaining power against the suppliers which Seth Godin refers to as the PERL (Percentage of Easily Replaced Laborers). These people are easily replaced, yes, but that is exactly what management wants if their short-term goal is to restrict costs, and drive wages down.

The linchpin is between management and labourers. It is now easier to find people in self-organized online systems. Godin believes that we can all create our own factories…Karl Marx and Adam Smith both agreed that there are management and labour; management owned the machines, and labourers followed the rules. Godin believes that the 3rd group is called the linchpin between management and labourers. They are creating new products more effectively, creating new ways to express themselves. 3D printing is an area where new growth may be developing in the near future. Realistically, the linchpin is not likely to be between management and labourers. Godin is basically talking about entrepreneurial people within an organisation.

Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? Part III

(I) The Race To The Bottom (continued)

When Walmart enters a rural market, businesses close, jobs disappear, and the town declines, according Godin. This is acceptable because Walmart has low prices for every possible item. Macroecomonic theory is irrelevant to people making a million tiny microeconomic decisions every day in a hypercompetitive world. Those decisions repeatedly favour fast/cheap over slow/expensive. Godin accepts that we cannot halt capitalism through the freezing of prices, and industries, so we need to think differently in order to produce a viable solution for the race to the bottom.

Critique of the Race To The Bottom: If you think, as Godin does, like a marketer, then yes, it might appear to be true that the service industry is collapsing but it is instead becoming more specialized, and developing in unanticipated ways. He should be arguing that increased departmentalization needs to be bridged through better on the job training. Human capital is falling for those who do not invest in teaching themselves how to be productive. Self-taught people generate more value. Godin believes that factories in the service industry have collapsed, he is not entirely correct, as new industries have been born.

(This is a series of posts on Seth Godin’s Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?)

Linchpin: Are You Indispensable? Part I

Seth Godin repeats the same core points over, and over again with variations on the quality of examples over a 225page book. His argument is not very rigorous because most entrepreneurs recognize them as a valid way of thinking:

(I)   The Race To The Bottom In Prices Is Inevitable;

(II) Education = Dispensability;

(III)Workers Are Increasingly Interchangeable;

(IV) The Zero Sum Game Within The Economy Is A Lie;

(V) The Linchpin Is A Person Who Is More Emotional, Gift-Giving, Visionary, and Mature.

(I) The Race To The Bottom

For over 200 years, Western economies have been standardizing, and automating their work force for increased productivity. In the process of the industrial revolution, a great deal of organization has been built within society to ensure a foundational education, and functionality within the work force. There were managers and labourers in oppositional struggle within factories, and corporations.

The death of the factory in Western economies is certain, according to Godin, as a result of the collapse of these product producing business models. Seth Godin contends therefore that being a functionary is no longer possible. Wages are racing to the lowest levels possible, Amazon is automating its delivery workforce through robotics, McDonald’s has drive thru employees taking orders in a call centre in North Dakota rather than in the localized McDonald’s itself. Technology has driven the cost of employees down, while unions are losing the battle against outsourcing to India, South Korea, China et cetera….In order to avoid being a functionary, you must become your organisation’s Linchpin.

This is a series of posts on Seth Godin’s Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?

Race To The Top

Become an entrepreneur, and race to the top. That’s what Seth Godin is saying these days, and he is actually correct (after years of peddling semi-serious internet marketing literature) that there is a need for individual ownership of ones own destiny. Perhaps not for most, but North America is in a more permanent recession as the industrial system is in a process of collapse. People are conditioned to fear failure, instability, but the society our parents grew up in is rather different to our own, and an unclear new path needs to be formed by channeling our understanding of market forces, sustainable ideas, and viable value propositions. Instead of chasing lower prices, find something you are good at, and create value.