PRODUCTIVITY: THE TENDER TRAP

American businesses have recently racked up the biggest productivity gains in 20 years, but viewed within the context of job gains, those gains can be a trap for business leaders, according to leadership authority, Brent Filson.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Massachusetts (PRWEB) December 17, 2003--American businesses have recently racked up the biggest productivity gains in 20 years, but viewed within the context of job gains, those gains can be a trap for business leaders, according to leadership authority, Brent Filson.

Filson, the founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc., says, "Sure, productivity is important in a business. It's what any business must promote continually. Economists love it. Analysts love it. Stockholders love it. It's all about bottom-line growth, which indicates how efficiently a business controls costs. But if leaders leave it at that, they'll fall into a trap. Because there's something much more important to business success than bottom-line productivity gains. It's top-line or revenue growth. Look at the success stories of the past two-decades, the Microsofts, the GEs, the IBMs (after the Gerstner turnaround); such companies were successful because of top-line growth, not just productivity gains."

Having consulted with literally thousands of leaders during the past 19 years in major companies worldwide, Filson asserts that leaders often see the productivity gains as ends in and of themselves. "With that view, they're caught in a trap that prevents them from seizing great top-line growth opportunities."

Filson says that smart leaders seize those revenue growth opportunities by using their own productivity gains to help their business-to-business customers' productivity.

"To those leaders who say their products don't relate at all to their customers' productivity, I say, 'Look again. You might not find a direct link with your products, but I'll bet you have developed productivity processes that can benefit your customer.

"When leaders cultivate a top-line growth mind-set, drive that mind-set through all functions of their company, and make translating their productivity gains into gains for customers, they are not just avoiding the trap but using it as a springboard for great results."

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Brent Filson is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. His latest book is The Leadership Talk: Motivating People To Achieve More Results Faster, Continually. www.actionleadership.com

To download Brent Filson's 800 word article on Productivity: The Tender Trap, go click: http://actionleadership.com/press_room/index.html

Press Contact:

Emiliano De Laurentiis

Knowledge Environments(413) 458-5611

Direct Contact:

Brent Filson

The Filson Leadership Group, Inc.

(413)458-4403

brent@actionleadership.com

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PRODUCTIVITY: THE TENDER TRAP

by Brent Filson

(413)458-4403

brent@actionleadership.com