Interview with Bay Jordan

After more than twenty years as an auditor, financial manager and consultant, I have become increasingly concerned by the human economic waste and misuse of good people through the "factors of constraint" that inhibit their ability to realise their full potential. The initial role of computers as a labour saving tool has continued to colour systems development and perpetuated the mindset that people are an expense, despite management's frequent claims to the contrary. I have thus concluded that technology has consistently failed to deliver the full benefits forecast largely because all too often the people side has been totally overlooked. Consequently that potential will never will realised until this attitude is reversed and more attention paid to the people.

Identifying the need to highlight this, I wrote my book, "Lean Organisations Need Fat People" to challenge the lip service paid to the concept of people being an organisation's greatest asset. 'HR is the new IT' thus became a catch-phrase for me.

Unfortunately, it didn't seem to do much for anyone else! So, since publishing the book in 2004, I have been taking up my own challenge and exploring the concept of people as assets, from both the practical and strategic perspectives. As a result I am now uniquely positioned to help people and organisations implement a practical process delivering new performance measures that inculcate people being not only seen, but treated, as assets: a process that will allow businesses to steal a march on the competition and build a platform for sustained success, while ensuring a happier, more fulfilled - and thus better engaged - workforce, delivering significantly improved performance.