November 2019
Opinion
Meaner Times = Leaner Times?
A monthly column by Martin Kubler, CEO, chief cook and bottle washer of sps:affinity – Strategic Partnership Solutions One of my all-time favourite Dubai business stories is about the time, a few years back, when I went to pick up a cheque at a very big company. We’re not talking “one office and 50 employees here”, but a massive, multi-storey headquarters in one of the permanently traffic-jammed neighbourhoods of our city. Having finally found parking and standing outside the gleaming office building, I thought: that’s surely a successful company that uses the latest technology and management strategies to stay ahead of the game. Feeling positively energised by the outside appearance of the building, I went inside, found the right floor (each floor was dedicated to one of the company’s business units) and, at last, the accounts office. The secretary pointed me to the right desk, one of about 20 in the large, openplan office, and a very friendly accountant asked me for my company’s name. “Here we go”, I thought, expecting him to open a state-of-the-art finance application on his desktop, and proceed from there. Alas, after I had spelled the company name for him, he opened a gigantic Excel spreadsheet, clicked “Search”, typed the company name into the search box, and then made an entry against the appropriate cells. Once this was done, he looked around his desk, which was covered in perilously high paper piles, zoomed in on a particular pile, split it in half (roughly) and handed me a paper with my cheque attached. Mission accomplished, I thought, but before I could walk out the door and bank the cheque, we had to have a little discussion about the payment receipt. We 42
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only issue receipts by email. He wanted a printed, stamped and signed receipt. Worlds clashed. We’re still hearing a lot about how companies have to become leaner and save costs to remain relevant and successful. I haven’t been back to this office since my visit back then, but I dare say that the chaps there probably still use Excel, navigate huge paper piles, and insist on printed, stamped, and signed receipts. What gives? Just the other day, a contact of mine told me that his employer is reducing salaries and benefits in order to
cut costs. The same employer also still features an overly large back office, full of people in charge of filing all these printed, stamped, and signed receipts – and carrying out similar mundane tasks. I’m not a fan of robots taking over everything, but, guess what, robots will take over everything. At least everything mundane. The times when we could afford huge back office operations, miles of printed paper and files, armies of rubber stamps, and countless neatly dressed tea boys are well and truly over. Go lean or perish. www.hotelnewsme.com