Soundbites

”Sorry, you’ve been decruited”

Few topics have accumulated as many euphemisms as the action called downsizing, making redundant, laying off, demising, and even absurd, clunky phrases like personnel surplus reduction. When businesses mask their actions with vague, robotic language, both clarity and people are the big losers. The list of euphemisms for firing people is long and could fill a book. Workers can be attritioned, excessed, graduated, or even decruited, the evil twin of recruited. The suffix de- has proven prolific in this area, as future collectors of unemployment have been dehired and deselected when a company is in the process of destaffing or degrowth. — Mark Peters in “The hidden danger of euphemisms,” BBC Capital

Owning up

When you are an owner, you care, you pay attention, you build stewardship, and you think about the future. If you build a house for a quick flip, how strong will you build its foundation? People always tend to cut corners in a place where they won’t actually be living. And that is why I have so often over the years quoted the dictum “In the history of the world, no one has ever washed a rented car.” Ownership focuses you on long-term thinking over short-term, and on strategy over tactics. — Thomas L. Friedman in Thank You for Being Late: An Optimist’s Guide to Thriving in the Age of Accelerations

Business of business

The purpose of business has been shifting in recent decades from creating wealth to being purpose-driven. As Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, once said, “Companies can do more than just make money, they can serve others. The business of business is improving the state of the world.” The triple, bottom-line focus on people, planet and profit is nothing new to progressive business.... It’s

Hijacking “America”

I enjoy reading The Marketplace and appreciate MEDA’s mission. As someone who grew up in Latin America I notice when “America” is used to describe the USA. The segment on Luther in the March/April issue (Roadside Stand) does just that when talking about the book markets. Since MEDA is involved internationally, I would encourage your editorial staff to pay attention to this. Latin Americans in general do not appreciate when the USA “hijacks” the term “America” to refer to the USA. I know that Europeans are okay with that and use it often. — Ernst Wiens. Hesston, Kansas time for business to play a greater role in bringing about social change, because the cost of leaving people behind, as we have witnessed in recent months, is very high. The public role models for business today need to be the silent majority who give back to their communities in generous ways every day, not the vocal few who cling to Friedmanesque values. — Steven Murphy, dean of the Ted Rogers School of Management at Ryerson University, in the Globe and Mail

Leave a mark

Your treasure is not just for pleasure. Rather, it is for leaving a legacy. Leaving the world better than you found it is not just your right — it’s your responsibility. — Phil Munsey in Legacy Now

Great idea, but...

People should not buy the myth that all they need is a good idea. In reality, it’s never the idea, it’s always the execution. — Nancy Strojny, SCORE business mentorship program

Money matters

There is an umbilical connection between our money and our lives — an inextricable connection where every money decision has the potential to affect the quality of our lives, and every life decision has the potential to impact the quality of our financial situations. — Mitch Anthony in The New Retirementality: Planning Your Life and Living Your Dreams ... at Any Age You Want

Comments?

Would you like to comment on anything in this magazine, or on any other matters relating to business and faith? Send your thoughts to wkroeker@meda.org