OPM – Others People’s Money. As a concept, “Other People’s Money” has been around for all of recorded history. People that have resources come together with people that need resources so that both might prosper. Often in history, those resources came in the form land, cattle, oxen or boats. Regardless of the currency, the object of the deal was simple and straight forward.

The other night I was watching a humorous old movie titled “Other People’s Money” starring Gregory Peck and Danny Devito. Each character was the antitheses of the other in this film. Mr. Peck plays Andrew Jorgenson. Jorgenson heads an old family business called the New England Wire and Cable Company. He sees himself as the Patriarch and protector of his company, its workers and the community where they reside. This factory has been losing large sums of money. Still, Jorgenson insists on keeping the thing open, losing big money day after day. In a pivotal scene, Jorgenson calls on his shareholders to allow him to continue running the business for the good of the people of the community and the employees that work there. His arguments are mostly based on nostalgia and supported by his wistfulness.
Danny DeVito stars as Larry the Liquidator, His character is a corporate raider who is famous for making money for himself and his shareholders by finding badly run or failing businesses with sellable assets, and getting rid of the dead weight to wring out a profit. Larry speaks to the same shareholders immediately after Jorgensen and, by any rational judgment, destroys his melancholy and sentimental arguments. He makes his point by focusing his commentary directly on the position that a corporate executive’s real responsibilities amount to MONEY.
To be sure, a little movie about the philosophies, realities, and dynamics of free market economics might not sound like it would or even could be dramatically interesting but I enjoyed it and I recommend watching the speech scene more than once as a model on how to sway a hostile crowd. What I came away with from this scene as well as this movie is that as capitalists, we must remember that markets are dynamic if we wish to remain relevant in our market space. We must keep up with the efficiencies of technology that offer benefits to our employees, our customer, and most importantly, our bottom line.
A great piece of advice that this movie expresses is for executives or investors to quit tying up assets in outmoded and unproductive uses or technologies. This is especially true when more and better opportunities are available. Recognize when something is obsolete and move on. This is exactly how a market economy is supposed to work. Companies that quickly recognize the best ways to go to market utilizing all available resources that provide the best efficiencies will be rewarded with the most profits. Those left behind will adapt while playing catch-up in order to survive or simply fade away.
Technology is fast bringing efficiencies that help companies run smoother, ease workloads, provide for better and clearer channels of communication and store all of the history so that audits and research needs are a breeze. The biggest companies utilize the world’s most expensive technologies and staff their IT departments with teams of experienced highly trained personnel with a defined responsibility which is to optimize, update, and maintain the equipment and assist employees and customers that have need of a little assistance.
Would you enjoy demonstrating to your customers a tremendous respect for their time and your obvious commitment to servicing their needs as they navigate through your operation within the most advanced enterprise class communications package available today? Can you imagine your people maintaining their business presence whether at home or on the road? How about all of your key people being able to receive any communication including faxes and emails directed at them immediately and being able to redirect those no matter where they happen to be located? These are just a few of the hundreds of features that the the people working for top companies enjoy every day. The budgets necessary to do all of this reflect an enormous sum of money and obligation when maintenance, updates and licensing are considered. Profits and customer loyalty prove that it is, and continues to be a good investment.
Can your company afford that level of commitment to technology? Do you have the personnel with the experience, expertise and time to service this type of commitment? Well, of course not. On the other hand, would it help your bottom line, employee morale, and customer interactions if you could? Well, of course it would! Therein lies the quandary; unless you adjust, you are falling behind.
We can show you how to get it done. And, we can show you how to do it on your budget. The trick in this case is to use OTHER PEOPLE’S MONEY! Or, more like the people that I mentioned early in this piece, other people’s resources. Our company, Byte Logic Solutions, is a division of a business started over two decades ago. We own, maintain and operate the equipment necessary for you to securely communicate at the highest level. We can streamline your office telephony and add features that will make you and your people more reachable more of the time. We can do all of this for a low per month, per seat, per feature rate that in many cases is less than you are paying now. Let me repeat that. In many cases, we can provide access to the most sophisticated business communications platform available today for less than you are paying now. It is time for you to decide whether you are going to adapt or you are going to fade away.