Can marketing-minded bosses BE KIND TOO?
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A RECORD-MAKING TOUR TO FRANCE SEEMS TO SAY "YES"
It’s hard not to be cynical about one of the latest talks of the town on social media. The story about a business owner who took thousands of employees on a trip to France was as inspiring as it was surprising. This is one of the cases where “motives” are irrelevant because they are overshadowed by outcomes. When you spend your own money to make thousands of people, not to mention their family members, happy, little else matters. The end justifies the means.
Tiens Group founder and chairman Li Jinyuan may have “a knack of marketing”, as a western media organisation put it. A lot of reports also pointed out a desire to make a Guinness world record. But the thing is, his possibly selfish motivation led to something good not just for his company, but those who work for them, and that’s what differentiates the historic group tour of France from various other “feel good” corporate acts. If a businessman wants to promote himself and give thousands of others opportunities of a lifetime in the process, then so be it.
We hope what the billionaire has done is part of a new noble trend. In other words, we hope that the “exception” can become a rule one day. Recently, we learned about a business executive who sacrificed parts of his own salary so that those working for him could have a shot at a better future. Charity, they say, begins at home. To corporate owners, there is no other place more like home than their own companies, and their employees are simply their family members.
Salary rises are what workers expect, so are bonuses and all the basic welfare. When something unexpected comes along, like a European group trip, the employees will forever remember it. Some say the $14.5 million “investment” could be easily offset by the publicity the trip generated, but that begged the question why, if it was so easy to recoup the money, no company had thought
about it before. Li Jinyuan would be remembered not just by “the others”, but also those working for him. After all, what he did was not what he had to do, like giving pay hikes or bonuses, but something he was not compelled to do but did anyway.
The workers returning from France may still have different opinions about their company, but at least they will agree on one thing, and that is that the owner didn’t have to do it; there are other ways to spend $14.5 million or to promote the firm. He could have spent the money on something else and most if not all of the workers would have still worked for the company anyway.
Most people grow up learning, or accepting, that company managers deserve more than general employees. When a company is successful, workers benefit but much of the credit and tangible returns go to “policy makers”. When a company endures a bad spell, normally it’s the workers who suffer first or suffer more.
It takes a great mindset to recognise the true importance of labour. Human beings are programmed to give credit to the Pharaohs for the pyramids and the Roman emperors for any structural grandeur. It has been the same for modern-day businesses. No offence to Steve Jobs, but he alone could not create iPhone and make it as popular as it is.
Ironically, the French trip made people know more about Li Jinyuan and his thousands of employees remain faceless. But the main point is that they are happily faceless, not least because their big boss’ kindness must have made them feel their contributions had counted for something. Their commitment to the company will be reinforced. If some of them go on to be very successful and have |companies of their own one day, they will certainly remember how they felt during their brief stay in France.
