People, Performance, and Pay [antikvár]

Foreword ay is one of the most effective tools available today for motivating an organization during a time of change. I know, because an innovative, dynamic pay strategy was a critical step in transforming the Santa Fe Railway from an underperforming, traditional railroad into a fast, flexible, customer-focused transportation company that has dramatically improved its profitability. The year was 1990. We at Santa Fe were in the throes of a major restructuring, selling off our natural resource assets and returning to our core business: running a railroad. It was not an easy transformation. The organization was, to put it blundy, in disarray. Our margins were too low, our costs too high. To make matters worse, we were losing business to the highways and other railroads because of our poor service. If we were to survive and prosper during the era of deregulation—our goal was a billion dollars of new revenue annually —we had to eliminate the old "utility mentality" of tolerating rising costs and merrily passing them on to customers. If we were to achieve our new vision of being a leader in the transportation industry, dedicated to growth by consistendy meeting our customers' expectations, then we had to change and change quickly. Downsizing alone was not the answer. We had to become a low-cost, high-quality producer. We had to improve the performance of every Santa Fe employee. ix