Pt.11 of 18. Perks, leadership lessons from organised crime

For the good of society - 18 leadership lessons from organised crime

Preface

In Part 1, "Ambition" we set the scene.

According to Interpol, the UN and WTO the organised crime industry is one of the worlds largest with quantifiable revenues of at least $3 Trillion per year and despite trillions of dollars worth of investment to counter act their growth the industry is growing faster than ever leaving a trail of devastation in its wake.

In a world first we reveal how Syndicates, some of whose annual revenues top $200 Billion use influence, resources, technology and vision to build global empires and translate it into a business language that philanthropists can use to build prosperous companies that can help repair some of the societal damage by creating new jobs, simplifying international expansion, building engaged workforces and creating new, selfless collaborative cultures.

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During our investigation we uncovered 18 categories, to read them just click on the link below:

1. Ambition
2. Customer Service
3. Bribery and Corruption
4. Devolved decision making
5. External Problem Resolution
6. Internal Problem Resolution
7. Local Touch
8. The Lean Team
9. Consistency
10. Loyalty
11. Perks
12. Disruptive Innovation
13. The Flight to Favourable Jurisdictions
14. React to Real Time Events
15. Process as the Enemy
16. Spying on the Competition
17. Emigres Clusters
18. Trust, Faith and Openness

(11) Perks

What this means to the Shadow Industry

Perks within the Shadow industry are legendary and everyone is familiar with the concept of criminal crews splitting their ill gotten gains among themselves. The reasons for this are obvious, people are rewarded for their involvement in a successful enterprise, compensated for the risks involved and paid appropriately for their skills. Very few criminals today, if any would get involved if they weren’t going to get adequately rewarded and the syndicates focus on lean teams ensures that everyone gets the maximum returns and there have been numerous examples of criminals living the celebrity lifestyle.

What this means to legitimate industries

Of course in the legitimate world many organisations compensate their staff for their time by providing a basic wage which covers the employees business as usual activities that form part of their daily work routine. Members of the criminal fraternity however enjoy no such luxury and while they may have a monthly income it certainly doesn’t come from what we would recognise as a common a garden ‘wage’.

Perks, or as we call them in the legitimate world of business bonuses, compensation packages and awards fulfil a critical role in building, boosting and sustaining the morale of your workforce but in today’s austere times how many organisations can say that they haven’t cut back on perks and expense schemes? Many of you in larger organisations will be all too familiar with those messages that drop into your inbox telling you that reward schemes, bonus plans, commission payments, off site events, company meetings, team meetings or seasonal celebrations have been cancelled or watered down because of budget constraints and meanwhile over achievement is rewarded with a sharp hike in target to help the organisation stay within wage and expense targets.

Takeaway

While organisations would argue that they remunerate their employees properly and in line with market expectations you need to nurture your relationships with your employees and show them that you value them. In today’s world standard remuneration packages lack imagination and eliminating reward schemes or getting employees to pay for their own Christmas parties does little more than show them how little you value their sacrifice and contributions. Not every perk has to be expensive or monetary and it’s important that your organisation recognizes that there are many ways to incentivize employees.

The key takeaways are:

• Create reward packages that incentivise particular achievements or behaviours
• Avoid creating one rule for the executives and one for the rest of us
• Not all perks have to be monetary
• Pay for the office party