What's New At Credit Matters?

The focus of the August newsletter is all about reviewing business strategies, which is probably appropriate as illustrated with all the issues now facing Qantas.

The attachments with this newsletter

1. The IMA regarding negative call centre experiences and customer expectations,
2. From Barry Urghart – Qantas Turbulence – “Moments of Truth”
3. What’s a criminal look like?

Kim is available to help with your questions and concerns if you need any assistance, and as always, the first chat is always free of charge or obligation.

Quote Of The Month

“A focus on rewards can open workers up to overlooking other important values. Incentives can bring out the worst in us." by Taylor Telford in AFR 28/1/2023

Monthly Business Observation

Two of the worst outcomes for any business is to make an incorrect decision about rewarding employees which have achieved superior performances in their jobs. This situation can cause disharmony within the business which in turn, creates unnecessary problems for the business as it gives your business’s enemies advantages over your business.

The fact is that each business already has other real enemies, which includes competitors, slow payers, manipulative customers, plus dodgy suppliers, without creating further “enemies” within the business. You certainly don’t want to create situations which cause an “us and them” effect within your business.

The problem with inappropriate reward programs which only rewards specific groups within your business is that it destroys the element of teamwork which is so essential. In the current difficult economic times, teamwork creates efficiencies and the best possible outcomes across the whole business.

When the decision is made to only reward specific groups within the business, two negative outcomes occur.

The first is when the recipients start falsifying figures to achieve the bonuses and rewards because it becomes:

1. an image of achievement, or of superiority over others,
2. it creates feelings of jealousy within the group of participants,
3. a belief that they are entitled to it as part of their employment “contract”,
4. a want for the extra money which other employees are receiving,
5. a way to pay their drug or gambling problems, etc.

The second problem is that employees in the other groups which are not included in the reward programs, and have delivered, or at least in their eyes, a superior achievement. In this case the employees can:

1. become jealous and disenfranchised,
2. lose focus and make mistakes,
3. start stealing product,
4. be motivated to provide important strategic information to competitors, or
5. start bad mouthing the business in public, etc.

As a consequence, in either case, negative costs for your business increase exponentially and unnecessarily. The last thing you want in a slowing business environment is to have employees which are not fully committed to the welfare and efficiency in your business.

History shows when all employees are treated equally in regard to achieving rewards and special benefits, they are more likely to operate as a team. Conversely, having an inappropriate rewards program for all employees will almost certainly ensure that the best team environment will never be achieved within your business.

This Month's Business Inconvenient Truth

One of the outcomes of any technology response relates to two major factors, quality of the initial data and human influence in the design process. There is now also a second problem with AI and ChatGPT. The same issue applies about the quality of the source information and whether it is correct or may be incorrect and skew the end result of the program.

It will be interesting for instance, when AI based programs start producing results, will these results be valid from the information sourced by the program. In addition, was any information which was used, identified as being valid and authentic, or was the information discredited and false, or biased towards a specific outcome?

There is a long way to go before AI programs can be relied upon without further investigations on whether the information produced is of value, or the basis of a future calamity.