Right Fix for Corporate Sniffles Not Off-Peopling Pill But Hyper-Human Injection

MOUNTAIN LAKES, NJ - January 10 -- The symptoms: fevers that rise when stock prices fall ... swollen costs ... anemic sales ... tired production ... and dull fuzziness, often accompanied by confusion and panic, in the headquarters.

"It's flu season for corporate bodies," says the head of a New Jersey think tank. "At-risk companies, especially the elderly, should take precautions," he advises, "but they're taking the wrong ones." He is Richard W. Samson, director of EraNova Institute -- www.eranova.com -- which advises companies on healthy growth through employee empowerment. Common misused remedies include --

- Merger Methadone: Often prescribed for feverish success addicts, this strong drug can relieve the ache and pain of "no growth by legitimate means," Samson says. "But too many doses can clog the operational arteries."

- Downsizing Decongestant: This common over-the-counter medication can restore corporate respiration, but only temporarily and with severe side effects. "Over time it seeps into the company's bloodstream, poisoning corpuscles of innovation and enthusiasm."

- Liposuction and Bloodletting: "These draconian remedies are being taken at the slightest sneeze or just out of habit," says Samson. "But you can remove only so much flesh and blood before the rest of the body weakens and dies."

The misused remedies all involve "off-peopling," a term coined by Samson. Off-peopling, like offshoring, reduces human costs, but does so by squeezing out the human factor entirely, mostly through progressive automation and computerization. The result is never-ending layoffs; increased workloads for remaining workers; downward pressure
on pay and benefits; undermined communities; and a new low for the middle class, with 12% of Americans in poverty.

"Off-peopling is okay if you re-deploy your people in smart new ways," says Samson. "But so far most big companies aren't doing that. It's high time they started." Many venerable firms -- in telecommunications, the airlines, manufacturing, retail, and finance -- are entering the intensive care ward, never to recover, he predicts.

The health-promoting alternative to off-peopling is the "Hyper-Human Solution" promoted by EraNova. As tasks are offloaded to technology, people are simultaneously empowered to perform higher-level functions beyond the ability of electronics and automation.

According to Samson, the few companies that have implemented the approach have kept their employees and hired new ones while reducing costs and boosting productivity. And they have seen their revenues and stock values perk up nicely. (Bellwether hyper-human implementers are listed on the EraNova site.)

The hyper-human approach will eventually lead to a Hyper-Human Economy, as predicted by Samson in the September/October issue of The Futurist magazine. The trend was chosen by the World Future Society as #1 of their top 10 forecasts for 2005. In the Hyper-Human Economy, surviving companies will fare even better than yesterday's winners, "not by attacking their employee bodies, but by giving them a new more vital life."

Samson, a specialist on the mind and technology, has published 10 books and contributed expertise to leading organizations including AT&T, Cisco, IBM, and the fast-growing "hyper-solutions" provider, Adea Solutions of Texas.

His most resent book is "MIND OVER TECHNOLOGY: Coming Out On Top as a Wired World Starts to Run On Automatic": Trade paper; 268 pages; ISBN 1-59457-234-8; from BookSurge Publishing, a partner of R.R. Bowker. It may be ordered from Amazon.com, Borders.com, Alibris.com, BookSurge.com, bookstores, and by dialing 866-308-6235. An excerpt is available at www.eranova.com.

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