The buck stops here
It seems we live in a society where everyone wishes to pass the buck on to someone else for anything that goes wrong, so that no one takes the blame or is responsible for their actions; yet if by some mischance it goes right then the same potential buck passers love to sit back and accept the adulation and fame for their actions.
My local sports club (Virgin Active) have recently employed an outside company to maintain their car park; new signs have sprung up like bracket fungus informing people where to park and the penalties for parking incorrectly. Something that I have to say has been made necessary due to inconsiderate motorists parking on the central islands blocking the exit routes, parking in mother and child bays and disabled bays when not disabled and leaving their car there all day while they go to work.
Have the signs or the parking company made a difference? NO. The same inconsiderate people still carry on regardless. When I queried this the response was “we have hired an outside company to manage the car park now” in other words the buck has passed, the problem is still there, the company is paying the outside company to do work that is not being done; but the management can say “we have done what we could by hiring professionals”.
We see the same in many other industries where there is a difficult or controversial decision to be made the management decide to hire outside consultants to carry out the work, normally starting at a low cost that gradually increases until it reaches a barely sustainable level; but by then the expertise within the company has left or been lost thus ensuring the continued use of outside consultants.
The problem in using outside consultants is that when they tender for the business the top person or expert visits you, but the consultant assigned to the actual job tends to be a junior who has read up on your business and possibly has a degree in your business, but rarely has any hands on practical experience of actually working in your business. Yet management are happy with this. Why? Because they can blame someone else if it all goes wrong, they can pass the buck with a clear conscience.
If we compare this attitude regarding internal versus external experience between the UK, Europe and the US it appears to be handled very differently. Enter any office in the US or Europe and you will see employees of every age group all contributing their experiences and knowledge to the wellbeing of the company; however in the UK (especially in finance) the employees are considerably younger, creating an operational risk in how to handle a disaster thus leaving the company very vulnerable.
Some smaller banks in the UK value age and experience and tend to employ career bankers to carry out the daily duties and risk management, because they know that when something does go wrong is when real experience counts to save the day, thus leaving the bank less exposed and giving the directors a sense of genuine security knowing their bank is in good hands and that the experienced staff will stop the buck from travelling too far.
We have a good number of very experienced professional bankers who are all willing to pass on their knowledge and experience to bank employees of all levels, experience that you can never get from reading a book or talking to outside consultants.
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