It’s a rare moment in history when a professional athlete holds North America’s attention for six weeks of summer plus an hour long nationally televised special. When we see a basketball player garner attention like a presidential candidate it’s not a stretch to think Lebron James might have changed the way people view athletes. But can it change the way we view the owner and employee relationship?

If Lebron taught us nothing from a business perspective he taught us that a free agent employee with valuable skills holds all the cards. An owner drafts an employee contract to protect themselves, when that contract is up they’re left with nothing to protect them from losing a valued resource that generates revenue for their company. Employees are assets. An asset lost with no re-sale value is a big loss. That’s true for a building or a car and it’s true for a skilled employee. So what are business owners to do?

An owner must strive to make a valued employee a long term asset by creating growth opportunities. Buildings and machines depreciate, people gain experience, learn and grow. Lebron James has taught us that a business owner’s job is always about growth management. While your employees are growing, create an environment and a business that grows with them or watch them grow out of your business. If not? Ask Dan Gilbert how it feels to see the back side of the cards you once held like you couldn’t lose.

Tags: business, Dan Gilbert, employee relationship, Lebron James

This entry was posted by Kevin MacNeil on Friday, July 9th, 2010 at 4:29 pm and is filed under Business, Sales and Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.