I give lots of professional talks. I normally ask attendees: “How many of you know your company’s business model?” Less then 10% do. People can tell me what they do and what department they’re in. But, they don’t know the company’s business model. That’s shocking. Moreover, I can pretty much say that these are the Handy workers who are expendable if there’s an economic blip.
So, do you know your customer’s or employer’s work model? It may follow the Handy model or be some variant.
Critical questions to ask your employer or customer are: Are you or your process part of your organization’s inner, middle, or outer rings. If your process is not part of the organizational core, then what’s the chance that it will be outsourced? If you’re a middle manager, what does the organization want to do with your department or activities? If you’re a middle ring person, a project consultant, what’s critical to your customer? What skills are critical to your customer and what’s it willing to pay for them?
Life Lesson Earned: What do this critical question have to do with you? Everything! If you don’t know your company’s business model, you don’t know how to add value to the core. If you don’t know how to add value, you’re ultimately expendable. Sorry, about the bad news. However, that’s the way it is.