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Every now and then a business book comes along that revolutionaries how the business world views an area of focus. One such book had the amusing title “Who Moved my Cheese” by Spencer Johnson. This short book that is illustrated like a children’s story has some profound ideas in it that will radically change how any business approaches the marketplace. It is a book that has had his biggest impact in helping employees who have been displaced view their job change. But the ideas that are made simple in “Who Moved my Cheese” can impact virtually every area of business dealings.

The book communicates its message through a story of a mouse who finds that the place where he can find his cheese is no longer reliable. The mouse’s friend continues to go to that same place to find more cheese only to continue to get hungrier and hungrier. But the hero of the story finds the new location of his cheese. When he finds his new source of cheese, he not only is astounded by the bounty but that even after telling his friend of the new source of cheese, that friend continues to insist that his cheese will be there where it always had been before and that in fact, the hero of our story is mistaken about the new location of cheese.

This, obviously, is not a tale about cheese location. It is a parable of how to handle change. The core value being taught by “Who Moved my Cheese” is that we cannot always look to the same resource for our supply. Markets dry up, businesses go through slumps and have to lay good people off and revenue streams change.

But one thing is for sure. There is always a new reservoir of funding somewhere in some market. And the wise business can foresee a change in the marketplace well in advance and make the changes they need to make so that they go where the money is, or move with the cheese to find the new source of rich funding and tap into it.

It is more than just a parable about looking for a new job. But it sheds light on the plight of the unemployed. So often someone who loses their job gets stuck in a mental cycle of waiting for their old job to hire them back or looking for an identical job in a very similar industry. However, if that industry is under economic pressure or if the business paradigm for that industry has changed dramatically, there may no longer be rich sources of funding and employment availability there that was once so reliable. In short, the cheese has moved.

This lesson has rich wisdom in business beyond the employment scenario. The businesses who have learned to be adaptable in a changing marketplace and have made the changes to follow the changes to the new source of “cheese” are the businesses that survive decade after decade. The grocery industry has seen that kind of change. Many grocery chains went belly up waiting for the cheese to come back to the old paradigm. But others saw the invasion of the big discount stores such as Wal-Mart and found ways to combat that change, to find new niches in the industry where an untapped market need existed or to compete in the new business paradigm. Other industries where such dramatic changes have forced businesses to find out who moved their cheese are the record industry and the book sales business environment that have been so heavily impacted by internet sales.

But those businesses have survived. And if they can be aggressive and adapt and change with the markets, it’s a good example for all of us as we continue to look for the new source of “cheese”.

Much has been said and written about the globalization of the marketplace in the new century.  More and more, business no longer sees their markets as limited to their community, state or even this country.  To be successful in the new world economies, we have to see our markets as international if for no other reason than that our competition and our customers are seeing these markets.

The press likes to make a fuss about the effect of international trade on the national workforce.  While that is a concern, the old axiom that every problem represents an opportunity applies well to this business paradigm.  If we as business people begin to see the international business community as our opportunity to tap into markets and revenue streams otherwise unimaginable in another market environment, we can capture a new profitability that can come with success in those markets.

However, doing business in foreign markets demands some changes to how we go about structuring our contracts and sales and distribution networks.  One of the most explosive markets that is just beginning to become available to western businesses are the wealthy cultures of the Middle East.  With the explosion of the Dubai projects and the westernization of many of the Middle East cultures, it is becoming possible to “go retail in Riyadh” if we are willing to learn the culture and how to approach those markets.  To do so, the following constraints should be taking into consideration.

§    Middle East markets are self protecting.  Many Middle East countries restrict commerce to occur only between business entities within the country.  This can be worked around utilizing partnerships with local businesses who can bring in your product and create a local franchise.  The business is still yours, as are the profits, but the localization of your presence in a Middle East economy is set up to honor these restrictions.

§    Middle East markets work under Islamic Law.  There will be interruptions for daily prayer and for Islamic holidays that you will be expected to honor.  So be prepared to be respectful of these customs.  Also be sensitive that nothing in your product offerings makes reference to other religious viewpoints.   This is not being timid about our own culture.  It is just being savvy about how to work profitably in an Islamic culture.

§    Distribution and management must be internationalized.  You probably will not be able to set up a warehouse in the middle of Saudi Arabia with your company name on it.  Because of the local bias of the states where you want to do business, take advantage of any existing distribution channels that go through Europe or other surrounding countries to route your product to the Middle East and turn over ownership, management and distribution of the product within the Middle East to your Arabic partners before the product enters the country.  This careful set up of your network will pay off in the long run.

§    There are friends and enemies in the Middle East.  Many fear doing business in the Middle East because of dangers due to recent conflicts.  Just be aware that the west has many allies in these countries and there is a desire to partner with us within the more sophisticated economies in the Middle East.  By taking care as you forge your relationships and using local wisdom to craft your business dealings, you can do business in the Middle East safely and profitably.

These are significant issues when considering whether it is time for your company to start offering your products and services to the wealthy nations of the Middle East.  But if the time has come that your business is ready to start building those international commerce channels, the results can be tremendously profitable for your bottom line.  The investment is worth the effort if the business structures are developed wisely.

The business paradigm in virtually every department of the modern business has been undergoing continuous change in the last ten years to such an extent that it becomes necessary to step back and review how we do business in all aspects of corporate life in light of new markets and new ways even our employees do business.  This is as much true in our Human Resource Department as it is in Marketing.  The labor pool is changing and the impact on the bottom line of the business can see be serious if we don’t change how we go about recruitment and view employee retention in light of the changes to the available educated labor “out there” to draw upon for our staffing needs.

Employee retention and how we approach the concept of keeping employees over many years is an area where certain assumptions must be challenged if we are going to stay competitive.  Some assumptions concerning employee retention that are rapidly becoming obsolete include…

§    That there is an unlimited resource of eager employees out there to fill my staffing needs.
§    That it’s a good idea to cycle employees in and out of the company because that keeps benefits costs down.
§    That the “my way or the highway” approach to management is the right way to go to enforce your vision for how work will get done.
§    That employees are commodities.  There are always more where they came from.
§    That employees should be grateful just to get a paycheck.
§    It is better to keep a youthful staff and to move older employees out of the work place.

The labor pool in changing with shifts in the demographics in the country and those changes make these assumptions obsolete and dangerous if we expect to keep a staff that can provide quality support for our business objectives.  Because the “baby boom” is leaving the market and being replaced with a smaller and less skilled youth population, we have to adjust our expectations both in terms of hiring and retention.

Probably the biggest change we have to get used to is to begin to view employees as valued assets and to give significant attention to retention, not just once a year at performance review time but on a daily and weekly basis.  The assumption that employees will work for us for a paycheck and that we can exert leverage in the management situation because of a large labor pool we can tap to replace unhappy employees has become a flawed approach to people management.

The truth is the pool of talented labor is shirking at an alarming rate.  If you have a staff of skilled people who you have invested in to bring up their knowledge and skill levels, that is an investment worth.  Skilled and educated employees are in short supply and, above all, they know they are in demand so they can move from job to job without difficulty if they become dissatisfied at their current work place.

These changes to the paradigm of emplacement justify a corporate wide reevaluation of retention policies and strategies.  The HR Department should be on the forefront of changing the business’s attitude toward employees from one of “us against them” to one of employee empowerment and partnership.

The managers who will excel at retaining valuable, productive and trained employees will be those who see the employment relationship as a contract in which management has responsibilities to employees to assure their continued growth and success just as the employee must pull his weight in the company.  A partnership approach to management will go a long way toward improving the company’s retention profile which will benefit the business in a multitude of ways.