One of the supposed realities of modern times social / economic / financial / business environment is being caught in the ‘middle’. The middle is associated with failure to reach the top, instead of being considered a ladder to climb to the top.
In political parlance it is said that the middle ground is disappearing and that one needs to be extreme Left or extreme Right to stay relevant to the electorate’s expectation. Political parties supposedly can no longer tilt Left or tilt Right. They have to be either fully Left or fully Right. In India / USA / UK, European nations (like France, Italy, Germany) – we are seeing the rise of the extreme Left or the extreme Right with the mild Left or mild Right (Middle) being tossed aside. The political ‘Middle’ is no more a viable electoral gains ground.
Similar thinking is being sought to be imposed on people with regard to the business / financial / economic environment. We are told by management ‘Gurus’ that if you are caught in the ‘middle’, you are unviable in the long term. The business pyramid area comprising of competing entities / suppliers / purchasers (B to B), employees –– which once had a big occupancy at the middle is getting diminished and that the middle is slowly but surely disappearing. There will be only the top entities and the small entities struggling to survive. According to the gurus, there is no doubt that the business environment is reaching a state of oligopolies at the top and a business mass at the bottom, which is in no way capable of threatening the top layer.
From business size to employees hierarchy, there is a sense of pessimism that midsize companies cannot survive and that middle level job opportunities are dying (technology will kill both these human structures).
We should not let such pessimism overpower us.
Human existence over centuries has shown that whether in personal or corporate human space the 3 tiers will remain –— Top – Middle – Bottom. Yes, there could be some short term displacement but the nature of the structure will always remain.
It is facile and foolish to think that middle sized corporates will be wiped out. They will not be wiped out. They serve an important role in giving market choice, varied product features, a loyal geography based customer population and in many cases Quality that matches the best that the top tier corporate offers. They are often faster at adopting technology and giving the consumer a better product. Middle level enterprises fulfil a great need of business democratization.
Remember at a time of technology upheaval, the top tier entity is more exposed to the business upheaval risk than a midsize entity. A top tier entity may have committed investments in billions over technology which suddenly appears outdated. Its ability to make business u-turns is clearly limited in time constraints. Questions will be asked on the methodology of application of funds and technology selection. The corporate bureaucracy will ensure that decisions will never be fast for radical change. The serious challenge to a top tier entity almost always is not from another top tier entity but from an upstart entity or a midsize entity.
The world economy and media attention has gotten caught into the actions of the top tier companies in a business section. The outliers are missed out and they suddenly land up causing upheaval and disturbance.
Another belief is that the top tier entities are more profitable than the middle tier entities. This is a falsehood. There would not be sudden corporate failure of giants and business reorganizations if they are very profitable. In fact, the top tier is most vulnerable to business failure. Size is the problem – actions not taken fast enough, change of corporate strategy and follow up actions to meet a newly evolving business environment is very difficult for large size entities. Also, arrogance of size seizes the organization. Our market share is so many percentage points and growing or staying constant. The threats are not recorded because most don’t like voicing concern at a time the tide is rising. Employee or customer feedback is digested and implemented better by a midsize entity than by a large top tier entity. The middle tier entities will not go away. They will stay and prosper, developing and building on their own competencies.
Similar is the case with middle tier corporate management employees, which tier basically forms the national middle class. This is the employees tier which is truly responsible for corporate efficiency, implementing corporate directions, taking care of rules / regulations / compliances / audits / keeping records and thinking out measures to increase productivity of actions. Whatever one may say – human connect is required by management. The top level needs to hear issues in human terms and not in machine code. No work can get done effectively if the middle management is not there, doing the translation.
The top tier employees, will realize in the next 5 years that through excess AI / technology usage they lost ground contact and were working in a vacuum. The middle tier employees will bounce back with improved competencies, skills and business relevance. A mistake many make is to think that technology will make the middle tier irrelevant. It will not. If the top tier is into strategy and business ideas, the middle tier gives this shape and explains the relevance to employees and vendors / customers and gives feedback to the top tier.
Generals cannot win wars only through technology use. Corporate life is a war of business. The Armed Forces need their ranks for fighting effective battles and the person ‘on the ground / at the moment’ is very much required. The same with corporates.
Every time technology has taken a major shift, there is talk of the destruction of middle corporates and middle level management. Every time this has been debunked because humans run / think / act business & life. Also, remember that digital technology is subject to hacking and other corruption means. The business can collapse, if the human is not present to bring it back on track. This importance of the human to resolve problems and rectify cannot be implemented by a compromised computer programme / code. Human intervention is required in such matters.
Among all the forces like technology, strategy, input / output (materials), commercial production & sales, the persons involved – the human element is the only element capable of thinking on it’s own and not needing to be ‘guided / directed’ in any way. This human element then has to be controlled and the control mechanism is fear. The gurus / futurologists / media / analysts / commentators / public figures all on corporate payroll in some ways – play on the human fear (of becoming redundant) trying to scare them into thought and action submission.
Human existence on Earth has shown that the world does not accept total hegemony. Last century has shown that even a powerful state apparatus (communist rule) does not deliver basic human needs and efficiency. Human thought is not subject to constraints. Businesses are not in a position to equal state apparatus. The middle ground will always survive, because humans will survive.
Yes, there may be adjustments but survival and maybe low key thriving will always be there. There is need to be cautiously optimistic about the MIDDLE.
Disclaimer
Views expressed above are the author’s own.
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