Our people are our most valuable asset.

Most of the managers I have closely worked with readily gave signs of acceptance to the frequently heard statement that people are a company’s most valuable asset. Yet, the people within an organization do not always experience decisions and policies reflecting this in everyday life. They are much more likely to see the company being driven by efficiency and by minimizing costs and severe headcounts. Asking audiences how they perceive reality, I have found fewer who feel that the decisions made by top management match the strong belief in the real value of people (more or less not more than lip services). To accountant and many GMs who always think on profit and bottomline described people as “costs walking about on legs” is often closer to reality nightmare.

To accountant and many GMs the problem is that people do not fit the strict financial definition of an “asset.” They cannot be transacted at will; their contribution is individual and variable (and subject to behavioral pattern and environment), and they cannot be valued according to traditional financial principles.
Organizations today are as much concerned about the “war for talent” and talent retaliation issues. why is this so? It is very simple. The valuation of companies has changed progressively since about 1990, putting a much higher value on “intangible assets” such as knowledge, competence, brands, systems effective socialization, team work, customer care and talents who represent the intellectual capital of the organization. And it is people, and people alone—the human capital”—who build the value.
However, it becomes quite clear that people should come first. What is recognized is that at the end of the day, everything depended on people: their capability, motivation, creativity, organizational skills, and leadership to plan, organize, resource, audit and control the business. People manage the tangible assets, and they also maintain and grow the intangible ones.
They are people who make boom and recession.