Are You Aging Well as an Organization?
In the corporate world, we often talk about a company’s vision and culture, employees, attrition levels, and leadership. At an employee level, we talk about skill set, work-life balance, and sometimes even the average age of employees. One thing that is not talked about that often is the age of a company itself.
Microsoft celebrated its fortieth anniversary this month. Amazon and ESPN are twenty this year. These are some significant numbers that we should not ignore. While it is great to see these companies withstand the test of time and the dynamics of the current corporate world, it is also important to see what has changed as they aged and whether they are well-positioned to continue to thrive among the smaller but more agile establishments. A lot of things change over time—even the way businesses communicate evolves.
Microsoft says its goal has changed yet stayed the same. Obviously, its objectives when the company was first starting out would not stay the same over four decades. But in the spirit of reaching every person globally, its goal changed from “a desktop in every household running Windows” to “an app in every device running on the Microsoft cloud.” While the company has been critiqued over the last decade for not innovating as much, it is looking forward to all the new changes its latest CEO has in store.
As for ESPN, a lot has changed in the last two decades, but one thing it prides itself on is the brand loyalty it’s been able to retain through a consistent experience. And Amazon is a great example of changing and growing over the course of a corporation’s lifetime as it has revolutionized the online shopping experience. It continues to be in the limelight with its innovations, including the most recent announcement of Amazon Dash.
While it is great to see some of the older employees still hanging on in these companies, a challenge that these organizations will face (if they are not already) is how to churn the employee base to ensure they continue to attract new talent. It’s important that a company not let its workforce fall victim to the Fat, Dumb, and Happy syndrome. Corporations should perform a “health check” on a regular basis along with other strategy, vision, and culture reviews to ensure they continue to age well and thrive for years to come.
