The United States is the forerunner of modern management. Its corporate culture management experience is summed up through continuous practice by its companies. At the same time, it is applied in actual work and has achieved huge economic benefits. American historian David. Meister asserted in his book "The Poverty and Wealth of Nations": "If economic development has taught us anything, it is that culture plays a decisive role." The management model of American corporate culture has become the object of study and imitation by various countries.
1. Respect personal values
The United States is a country of immigrants. Most of its early residents migrated from European countries. When these immigrants came to a strange environment, they had to start all over again. In the beginning, there was no help from relatives and friends, so they could only rely on personal struggle. Under the temper of life, Americans formed a strong color of individualism; in addition, the United States itself has a history of less than 300 years, and they entered directly from the slave society. Capitalist society has not experienced feudal society, so their personality is not bound by feudal ideas. And because the capitalist system promotes individualism, American personality has been developed in capitalist society.
American individualism makes American companies respect the personality development of employees, advocate personal freedom, and respect personal value. In 1997, the United States revised the original 40-hour work week labor bill and established a flexible work system to create a relaxed working environment for employees. Companies fully trust their employees' work abilities and believe that employees can handle their jobs well. According to a survey of 33 companies in the United States, after adopting "flexible work systems", corporate employees have a stronger sense of responsibility and higher work efficiency.
In 1960, HP established the business theory of "believing that anyone can pursue perfection and creativity at work, as long as they are given a suitable environment, they will be successful" and "respect every employee" It is one of Wal-Mart's three basic beliefs. The company uses various ways to help employees realize their potential. IBM, the blue giant in the computer field, regards "respecting individuals" as its core value. Everyone is equal within the company. There is no special place or equipment for leaders in the company. Even every office and every desk has no title label. The U.S. Small Business Administration conducted a study on 65 inventions that had a huge impact on the United States in the 20th century and found that they were basically completed by individuals. Jack. After Welch took over as president of General Electric Company, he promoted all-employee decision-making. The company invited employees who had not participated in decision-making meetings to attend the meeting and listen to their opinions, because employees knew their jobs better than their bosses. Decisions made in this way can be targeted and avoid decision-making errors. The BHP Refinery Company of the United States stipulates that managers cannot give orders to employees at will. Managers must take employees' opinions seriously and respect every employee.
American companies' respect for personal value is also reflected in the incentive mechanism. American companies will spend a lot of time, manpower and material resources to train employees on knowledge and job abilities, improve employees' business capabilities, and provide employees with a structure A platform to showcase your abilities. IBM generally promotes its employees from its own company, gives employees opportunities for promotion, and provides incentives based on their positions. In addition, American company rewards are often targeted at individuals rather than groups. They believe that employees have the ability to complete their jobs. They also require employees to clarify their responsibilities and be responsible for their work. If employees have outstanding achievements, the company will reward individual employees. American companies allocate their shares to employees, allowing employees to become the owners of the company, thereby giving full play to employees' sense of ownership, improving employees' sense of responsibility and enthusiasm, and making employees closely related to the fate of the company. In the 1980s, the typical compensation for American corporate managers was: the top management of the company had 25,000 share purchase rights per year, the middle managers had 7,500 share purchase rights per year, and the lower managers had 2,000 share purchase rights per year.
As of 2000, 80% of Microsoft's employees have stock options in the company.
Founded in 1971, Starbucks has become a global coffee retailer after thirty years of struggle. Since 1991, employees have been allowed to purchase the company's stocks at a discount, and employees who meet the company's conditions will receive options every year. A scientific researcher from the Foxboro Company in the United States showed the new product he had developed to the general manager. The general manager was very happy after seeing it and felt that a reward should be given on the spot. However, the general manager had no prizes around him at the time, so he had to use a Bananas are used to reward employees, and in the future the company will use "golden bananas" to reward the company's outstanding scientific research innovators.
American companies’ respect for personal values ??is also reflected in personal heroism. American entrepreneurs are worshiped by Americans as “new American heroes.” People follow such business heroes as role models and give them honor and high status. The annual salary of Iacocca, general manager of Chrysler Automobile Company, was US$12 million, while the annual salary of US President Clinton at the time was only US$200,000.
2. Support risk-taking and encourage innovation
American culture is a culture of immigrants. Immigrants take risks and move from familiar environments to unfamiliar places, often encountering new things and solving new problems. problems, they need to break the routine and adapt to the new environment; they need to keep trying, keep innovating, learn from setbacks, learn from failures, and get encouragement from success, thus forming the American spirit of adventure and continuous innovation. . There are many venture capitalists in the United States as an example. Danish philosopher Gorkogaard has a famous saying: "A wild duck may be tamed, but once it is tamed, the wild duck loses its wildness and can no longer fly freely across the sea and sky." American companies like to use people with this kind of "wild duck spirit" who are brave enough to take risks and constantly innovate.
Innovation is the core of American entrepreneurial spirit. There is a popular saying in the American business community: "Innovate or perish", which shows that American companies attach great importance to innovation. Over the past 50 years, the United States has undoubtedly been the world's leader in technological innovation. In 1997, the world's largest exporter of high-tech products was the United States, which amounted to US$258 billion, US$100 billion more than the second-placed country, Japan.
Microsoft is Bill. Founded by Gates in 1975, it has a history of thirty years by 2005. In just thirty years, Microsoft has grown from an unknown small company to a global software company, Bill. Gates has become the richest man in the world today. Microsoft's WINDOWS operating system has become the king of operating systems and promoted the development of the entire computer industry. /Exam/Collection/It has played an important role in popularizing computers and software for people. Why can Microsoft have such great achievements? , the main reason is that Microsoft employees continue to innovate and constantly update the quality and functions of their products, making their products the leader in the world. Minnesota mining and manufacturing companies in the United States usually invest about 7% of their annual sales in product research and development. The company provides an innovation platform for employees, and provides time and material guarantees to innovators from a mechanism and management perspective.
Innovation inevitably involves making mistakes and failures. Judging from the statistics of entrepreneurial investment in the past 20th century and 40 years, the probability of success is only 20, which requires companies to allow innovators to fail. "In the United States, it encourages you to try something, and even if you fail, you get credit for trying," said McGovern, president of International Data Group. A US$20 million investment plan by General Motors in the United States failed due to unpredictable market reasons. However, the person who implemented the plan was rewarded. The manager's position was promoted instead of being demoted. People were puzzled. The CEO of General Motors Welch explained the reason, that is, as long as your reasons and methods are correct, even if the result fails, it is worthy of reward.
Continuous innovation has enabled Americans to seize many commanding heights in science and technology.
The United States has always attached great importance to the development of science and technology. They invest a lot of manpower and material resources every year to develop new technologies and apply them to enterprise production, thereby converting them into productivity. They also rely on their technological advantages to formulate industry technical standards, thereby obtaining high profit. Since the 1950s, the United States has invested relatively heavily in the computer field. Its investment is ten times that of the United States in the atomic bomb. The United States' large investment and continuous innovation have placed it at the forefront of the world in the computer field and created a number of Giant companies in the computer field, such as IBM, Dell, Microsoft, etc. Microsoft attaches great importance to investment in scientific research. In 2000 alone, Microsoft invested US$5 billion in scientific research funds.