full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Warren Valdmanis: What makes a job "good" -- and the case for investing in people

Unscramble the Blue Letters


But Chris decided to do something different. Chris decided to invest in his workers. He hired overly huelfpl, overly friendly epyeeloms who at any moment were eager to step in and help you lrean how to use a piece of equipment without mniakg you feel like you're being judged. The idea was for the 55-year-old mom or dad, who’d never been to a gym before in their lives, to feel welcome and comfortable imelaidtemy. Now my question as a private equity iseotvnr is: Could this really be profitable?

There's an old joke about a man who's had too much to dnirk looking for his keys under a streetlight. A cop comes by and offers to help and asks where he thinks he lost them. "In the park," comes the response, "but I'm looking here because the light's better." That's a little how we investors look at companies today. We know that value at companies is driven by people, but we focus on short-term profit because it's so much easier to mursaee. I’ve worked in and around private equity for 25 years on six cninetonts, and I've seen this error in thinking again and again and again. In private equity, we buy cmnoepias and seek to improve them so we can sell them at a profit. But very often that imemrepovnt comes in the form of cutting costs, especially labor costs. piravte equity elympos roughly nine million people and has cut over a moililn jobs in the past decade. Too often we ask a company for their org chrat just to figure out who is getting fired. Now I think investors should take pride for helping to make companies lean, but I'm worried that we may have done our job too well and are now at risk of sntavrig companies of the people that they need to be successful.

Open Cloze


But Chris decided to do something different. Chris decided to invest in his workers. He hired overly _______, overly friendly _________ who at any moment were eager to step in and help you _____ how to use a piece of equipment without ______ you feel like you're being judged. The idea was for the 55-year-old mom or dad, who’d never been to a gym before in their lives, to feel welcome and comfortable ___________. Now my question as a private equity ________ is: Could this really be profitable?

There's an old joke about a man who's had too much to _____ looking for his keys under a streetlight. A cop comes by and offers to help and asks where he thinks he lost them. "In the park," comes the response, "but I'm looking here because the light's better." That's a little how we investors look at companies today. We know that value at companies is driven by people, but we focus on short-term profit because it's so much easier to _______. I’ve worked in and around private equity for 25 years on six __________, and I've seen this error in thinking again and again and again. In private equity, we buy _________ and seek to improve them so we can sell them at a profit. But very often that ___________ comes in the form of cutting costs, especially labor costs. _______ equity _______ roughly nine million people and has cut over a _______ jobs in the past decade. Too often we ask a company for their org _____ just to figure out who is getting fired. Now I think investors should take pride for helping to make companies lean, but I'm worried that we may have done our job too well and are now at risk of ________ companies of the people that they need to be successful.

Solution


  1. companies
  2. investor
  3. learn
  4. continents
  5. million
  6. employees
  7. private
  8. employs
  9. measure
  10. helpful
  11. drink
  12. chart
  13. improvement
  14. making
  15. starving
  16. immediately

Original Text


But Chris decided to do something different. Chris decided to invest in his workers. He hired overly helpful, overly friendly employees who at any moment were eager to step in and help you learn how to use a piece of equipment without making you feel like you're being judged. The idea was for the 55-year-old mom or dad, who’d never been to a gym before in their lives, to feel welcome and comfortable immediately. Now my question as a private equity investor is: Could this really be profitable?

There's an old joke about a man who's had too much to drink looking for his keys under a streetlight. A cop comes by and offers to help and asks where he thinks he lost them. "In the park," comes the response, "but I'm looking here because the light's better." That's a little how we investors look at companies today. We know that value at companies is driven by people, but we focus on short-term profit because it's so much easier to measure. I’ve worked in and around private equity for 25 years on six continents, and I've seen this error in thinking again and again and again. In private equity, we buy companies and seek to improve them so we can sell them at a profit. But very often that improvement comes in the form of cutting costs, especially labor costs. Private equity employs roughly nine million people and has cut over a million jobs in the past decade. Too often we ask a company for their org chart just to figure out who is getting fired. Now I think investors should take pride for helping to make companies lean, but I'm worried that we may have done our job too well and are now at risk of starving companies of the people that they need to be successful.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
good jobs 9
private equity 3
home depot 3
mission statement 3
chris decided 2
creating good 2
create good 2
impact investing 2
promising future 2
feel passionately 2
good mission 2

ngrams of length 3

collocation frequency
creating good jobs 2
good mission statement 2

Important Words


  1. asks
  2. buy
  3. chart
  4. chris
  5. comfortable
  6. companies
  7. company
  8. continents
  9. cop
  10. costs
  11. cut
  12. cutting
  13. dad
  14. decade
  15. decided
  16. drink
  17. driven
  18. eager
  19. easier
  20. employees
  21. employs
  22. equipment
  23. equity
  24. error
  25. feel
  26. figure
  27. fired
  28. focus
  29. form
  30. friendly
  31. gym
  32. helpful
  33. helping
  34. hired
  35. idea
  36. immediately
  37. improve
  38. improvement
  39. invest
  40. investor
  41. investors
  42. job
  43. jobs
  44. joke
  45. judged
  46. keys
  47. labor
  48. lean
  49. learn
  50. lives
  51. lost
  52. making
  53. man
  54. measure
  55. million
  56. mom
  57. moment
  58. offers
  59. org
  60. overly
  61. park
  62. people
  63. piece
  64. pride
  65. private
  66. profit
  67. profitable
  68. question
  69. response
  70. risk
  71. roughly
  72. seek
  73. sell
  74. starving
  75. step
  76. streetlight
  77. successful
  78. thinking
  79. thinks
  80. today
  81. worked
  82. workers
  83. worried
  84. years