Here’s The Deal…”volatile as Bob Knight on the side line…”
It is not a flashy company, and you almost certainly won’t see it featured in Fortune anytime soon. In fact, you’ve probably never heard of it, but the ‘Big 3” ought to study up: Baldor Electric Company (BEC) paved a business model for companies to follow in bleak economic times. Trouble is ‘loyalty’ isn’t as catchy as ‘bailout’.
At a time when our nation cowers under a 6.5% unemployment rate, and the stock market is as volatile as Bob Knight on the side line of an Indiana college basketball game, millions of Americans are wondering what went wrong, how did it get this bad. Tonight, 1-2 million auto workers are not sleeping because the nightmares of ‘layoffs’ and ‘cuts’ flush slumber and sweet dreams down the proverbial tube and Congressional ‘leaders’ pander to their constituents on a daily basis – hedging against party loyalties, soft money contributions, and lobbyists. In the wake of an American icon failing and going belly-up, top executives plead for billions of your tax dollars in hopes of saving their company, and their defense is not failed management strategy but rather global financial stress.
Here’s The Deal…Teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, in 1929, BEC vowed no layoffs for any of its workers – and none were. Restructuring pay kept each worker employed, and the rising manufacturer weaved its way through the Great Depression and emerged as leading small motor company in the U.S. And, during the early 1980’s as the nation again faced economic downturn, the company invested in employees who could not read by starting a literacy program, and re-writing the instruction manuals.
Capitalism is not void of compassion; it just goes by a different name…loyalty. Those who say we should save GM should compare GM to BEC. In times of trouble and consternation loyalty can be the difference…and for those who believe the unions are to blame remember that for years those same unions tried to get into BEC and were rejected every time. Where’s the loyalty, where’s the accountability for GM?
The American people should not be loyal to a bailout.
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