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That Inn In Vermont

That Inn In Vermont That Inn In Vermont Everywhere you turn these days, there's corporate unrest. No one wants to dress up anymore. Everyone wants to work out of his car. Plateaued middle managers spend their working hours scanning the pages of Entrepreneur for franchise opportunities. Running that inn in Vermont seems real attractive. What's happened? Where's that old corporate joie de vivre? Where's that American spirit of enterprise? As countless articles have told us—in this and other publications—the great American corporate earthquake is apparently the result of a number of confluent forces: the need to "rightsize;" the death of corporate loyalty; the collapse of corporate giants; the rise of two-career families; the rebirth of fatherhood; the emergence of new technologies; the growing, gnawing sense that life is short and working days are long—and getting longer. And, to their credit, corporations are responding. IBM, where "Big Blue" once referred as much to the uniform as to the logo, has gone casual, taking "Dress Down Fridays" four days better. Companies from Chiat/Day to Coopers & Lybrand (and, again, IBM) have turned their offices into "hotels," encouraging employees to check in only when absolutely necessary. Law firms have established non-punitive tracks for valued employees seeking work/family balance. Other companies have relaxed their punch-the-timeclock attitudes to accept and even encourage flextime. And almost everyone is following 3M's widely touted lead by institutionalizing intrapreneurial programs. For those who find these institutionalized programs a bit too, well, institutionalized, small business is the ever-present lure. But romantic as small business is, it's also fraught with danger. Long hours. High failure rates. Low capitalization. Few resources. But when it works... So, for all those dreamers, for everyone who's either nursing a breakaway dream, or realizing that one way corporate America has to change is to take a few pages from the small-business handbook, Business Strategy presents a special focus on small business (page 44). Chock full of case studies and practical pointers, it's geared to the big-business strategist who's looking for hints about how the other half lives. Couple that with our new monthly coverage of small business (page 55), and maybe you've got the beginning of a road map. Of course, we don't expect that you'll all soon be sending in your subscription renewals on the backs of postcards from Vermont. Small business isn't for everyone. But some sort of change is. The rumblings in both the marketplace and the workplace are loud and clear. The question is: what sort of change? In a conversation with Bristol Voss, Business Strategy's editor, reengineering guru James Champy noted (page 10) that many "managers are now spending all their time mobilizing their corporations around change." Good news? Champy is skeptical: "Managers have to ask themselves, 'Will this still be a place where I want to work?'" Given the direction most of these companies are heading, he adds, "I wouldn't want to work for 90% of them." The challenge is figuring out how to make the corporation a place people want to work—at the same time you're making it competitive and profitable. That's where executive education comes in (our annual coverage starts on page 28). In the meantime, make a reservation at that inn in Vermont. Maybe you'll want to make them an offer. —Michael Winkleman, Publisher 4 | Journal of Business Strategy PUBLISHER'S NOTE http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Business Strategy Emerald Publishing

That Inn In Vermont

Journal of Business Strategy , Volume 16 (2): 1 – Feb 1, 1995
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Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
ISSN
0275-6668
DOI
10.1108/eb039682
Publisher site
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Abstract

That Inn In Vermont Everywhere you turn these days, there's corporate unrest. No one wants to dress up anymore. Everyone wants to work out of his car. Plateaued middle managers spend their working hours scanning the pages of Entrepreneur for franchise opportunities. Running that inn in Vermont seems real attractive. What's happened? Where's that old corporate joie de vivre? Where's that American spirit of enterprise? As countless articles have told us—in this and other publications—the great American corporate earthquake is apparently the result of a number of confluent forces: the need to "rightsize;" the death of corporate loyalty; the collapse of corporate giants; the rise of two-career families; the rebirth of fatherhood; the emergence of new technologies; the growing, gnawing sense that life is short and working days are long—and getting longer. And, to their credit, corporations are responding. IBM, where "Big Blue" once referred as much to the uniform as to the logo, has gone casual, taking "Dress Down Fridays" four days better. Companies from Chiat/Day to Coopers & Lybrand (and, again, IBM) have turned their offices into "hotels," encouraging employees to check in only when absolutely necessary. Law firms have established non-punitive tracks for valued employees seeking work/family balance. Other companies have relaxed their punch-the-timeclock attitudes to accept and even encourage flextime. And almost everyone is following 3M's widely touted lead by institutionalizing intrapreneurial programs. For those who find these institutionalized programs a bit too, well, institutionalized, small business is the ever-present lure. But romantic as small business is, it's also fraught with danger. Long hours. High failure rates. Low capitalization. Few resources. But when it works... So, for all those dreamers, for everyone who's either nursing a breakaway dream, or realizing that one way corporate America has to change is to take a few pages from the small-business handbook, Business Strategy presents a special focus on small business (page 44). Chock full of case studies and practical pointers, it's geared to the big-business strategist who's looking for hints about how the other half lives. Couple that with our new monthly coverage of small business (page 55), and maybe you've got the beginning of a road map. Of course, we don't expect that you'll all soon be sending in your subscription renewals on the backs of postcards from Vermont. Small business isn't for everyone. But some sort of change is. The rumblings in both the marketplace and the workplace are loud and clear. The question is: what sort of change? In a conversation with Bristol Voss, Business Strategy's editor, reengineering guru James Champy noted (page 10) that many "managers are now spending all their time mobilizing their corporations around change." Good news? Champy is skeptical: "Managers have to ask themselves, 'Will this still be a place where I want to work?'" Given the direction most of these companies are heading, he adds, "I wouldn't want to work for 90% of them." The challenge is figuring out how to make the corporation a place people want to work—at the same time you're making it competitive and profitable. That's where executive education comes in (our annual coverage starts on page 28). In the meantime, make a reservation at that inn in Vermont. Maybe you'll want to make them an offer. —Michael Winkleman, Publisher 4 | Journal of Business Strategy PUBLISHER'S NOTE

Journal

Journal of Business Strategy – Emerald Publishing

Published: Feb 1, 1995

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