A Case for Minimizing Opportunities

By: Daniel Ferdinandusz

A quick scroll down Linked In or Facebook these days is likely to result in many profound articles on how businesses can maximize profits and opportunities, and capitalize amidst the current crisis. Many suggest methods of digital transformation and everyone has become an expert on how to work-from-home efficiently. Companies talk of capturing market share and distinguishing themselves from the competition by how they adapt to the volatile environment and respond to changing consumer needs. Now, I won’t, for a moment suggest that these are undesirable goals that companies should not attempt to achieve. Many of these proposed changes have been a long time coming and provide much-needed adaptability and flexibility into our fast-paced, fast-changing corporate environment. I do however want to reflect on an approach to this pandemic that is less-spoken about and very often less-desirable in a capitalist profit-oriented society – should we also try to minimize opportunities instead of always trying to maximize them?

At this point, I want to clarify that when I use the word opportunity, I use it in a business context; to mean, for example, opportunities for expansion, diversification, profit maximization and the like.

I’ve always been a disruptive thinker. I find satisfaction in solutions or ideas that seem counter-intuitive or challenging. And so, I questioned; is there anything to be gained by minimizing opportunity? Can there be any sense or value in actively refusing to go in pursuit of every course of action that drives up profit? Let’s look at this current pandemic and the resultant lockdown and work-from-home requirement. A fundamental challenge for business leaders has been how they can get the most out of a remotely working team during this time. Articles and instructions galore on how to make an efficient workspace at home, have the most productive meetings, use the best video-conferencing software, steps to digital transformation and the like. Doubtless, many companies would already have invested in the necessary resources to make this restriction work in their favour. While such responsiveness (albeit, in response to a pandemic and not as a result of proactiveness) is indeed to be commended, one wonders whether the flip side of the coin was ever a topic of discussion. How many leaders have realized what employees may have to give up in order to facilitate this kind of work-model?

Before life as we knew it was disrupted by COVID-19, the corporate workforce, at least at the lower level, lived a constant rat-race. Job stress or stress caused by a lack of work-life balance was and continues to be the main cause of stress for over 50% of survey respondents across multiple research programs[1], along with low job security[2] and other work-related factors. The percentage of people who work more than 50 hours a week is steadily rising (Asia has a comparatively higher increase compared to Europe[3]), along with a host of negative side effects, including increased alcohol consumption and damaged personal relationships.

This is a unique time in our history. A time when we have been forced to take a step back, stay home, and stay put. A time when many of us are seeing the walls of our home for longer than the walls of our workplace, perhaps for the first time in years. Have business leaders realized that this time is being used by their employees to re-evaluate, recharge, and rejuvenate? That this lockdown has given working men and women the chance to reconnect with their spouses and friends, spend more time with their children or elderly parents, or just to sit back, put their feet back and relax, learn a new skill or pursue a new hobby, or discover Netflix? Just 4 weeks into lockdown and I have already seen far too many posts or heard far too many complaints by disgruntled employees about having to be on call 24/7 or that working from home has now become more hectic or demanding than it was before the lockdown.

The underlying issue with always trying to maximize business opportunity is that it often comes at the cost of something else of value – human relationships and even humanity itself. Many employees (at least, those who still have their jobs, and those who can afford to) are surely re-evaluating whether their job is worth the sacrifices they are making to keep it.

Quite apart from the ‘human’ aspect, there is a very good business case for minimizing opportunity as well. Let’s take the 4-day work week as an example. In 2019, Microsoft Japan trialed the ‘Work-Life Choice Challenge Summer[4]’ in which the entire 2,300-person workforce was given 5 consecutive Fridays off, without decreasing pay and without increasing working hours on the remaining 4 workdays. This led to more efficient meetings, happier employees, and a rise in productivity by a resounding 40%. Employees were also given subsidized family vacations to the value of $920. In addition to the increased productivity, employees took 25% less time off and reduced office electricity consumption per week by 23%, while printing 59% fewer pages of paper. 92% of survey respondents preferred the shorter week.

A similar trial was run in New Zealand by Perpetual Guardian (a trust management company), who ran a 4-day work week for 2 months for 240 staff members. Once again, employees in the program reported having a better work-life balance, improved focus, and a reduction in stress levels by 7%[5], and the 4-day workweek was continued. Robert Half (an HR consulting firm) ran a survey of 1500 workers and 600 HR managers, out of which, 66% of workers indicated a desire to work less than 5 days a week. In yet another experiment (which was published by the Harvard Business Review), a decrease from an 8-hour workday to 6 increased productivity, while a survey of 3,000 employees by the Kronos Workforce Institute[6] found that more than 50% of full-time workers felt they were able to do their job in just 5 hours a day. This data, while not conclusive, is certainly an eye-opener. Companies who were willing to give up the ‘opportunity’ to have employees work longer and harder found that it yielded tangible business benefits. However, establishing a good work-life balance, along with prioritizing mental health is by and large a novel concept, especially in Asian countries.

Companies will continue to look for new opportunities and avenues that enable stabilization, sustainability, and profitability. And there is nothing wrong with that. The question that must be asked is whether trying to penetrate that new market or driving up sales or aggressively diversifying products causes a business to lose sight of its values and to lose sight of the reason it began in the first place. A company’s employees are its most valuable resource. And too often, that resource is taken for granted, overworked, underpaid, and undervalued. At a time like this, people look to their leaders for empathy and understanding. Perhaps, even for financial support. And when leaders don’t respond to this expectation, they are putting themselves at risk of losing both their profits and their people[7] - a recent survey by Edelman (a PR firm) showed that 71% of respondents stated that they would lose trust in a brand forever if they believed it was putting profit over people[8]. Employees today are re-evaluating where they stand. And many will choose to not stand with those who do not stand with them when they need it the most.

How leaders react and respond in this crisis and thereafter, can make or break the company they lead. We’ve tried to maximize opportunity after opportunity, chased after profits and more profits for years, yet all it took was an almost invisible virus and 2 months of no business to cause entire infrastructures, industries, and economies to collapse. We need to be willing to minimize business opportunities and refocus - on our values, on prioritizing relationships, on putting our people before our profits, and on finding a healthy work-life balance. Our model has been questioned, our motivations have been skewed, our methods have failed. It’s time to try something new.

[1] https://www.opensourcedworkplace.com/news/50-workplace-stress-statistics

[2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2019/01/09/workplace-trend-stress-is-on-the-rise/#5a26e8ef6e1b

[3] https://www.ft.com/content/cc56a824-d941-11e9-9c26-419d783e10e8

[4] https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-4-day-work-week-boosts-productivity-2019-11

[5] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/nov/04/microsoft-japan-four-day-work-week-productivity

[6] https://www.kronos.com/about-us/case-for-4-day-workweek-nearly-half-employees-worldwide-could-do-their-jobs-in-5-hours-or-less-each-day

[7] https://www.edelman.com/research/covid-19-brand-trust-report

[8] https://www.edelman.com/research/trust-and-new-employee-employer-contract