Try living dangerously.
Talk about getting no respect. For more than a decade, the “people side” of business has been the Rodney Dangerfield of the corporate boardroom. Ignored. Ridiculed. All but abandoned in favor of leadership by spreadsheet.
But that was then. This is now. Today, more and more managers are recognizing the importance of nurturing their people—and producing hard-to-overlook economic dividends along the way.
In a study of 3,000 companies, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania found that spending 10 percent of revenue on capital improvements raises productivity by 3.9 percent, but a similar investment in developing human capital increases productivity by 8.5 percent—more than twice as much.
When it comes to boosting the bottom line, it looks like the “touchy-feely” side of business might just be the Midas Touch.