One of the more dubious outcomes of the French Revolution was the standardization of guillotining as the sole (and oft-employed) manner of capital punishment. Prior to the revolution, only the nobility was entitled to such a humane demise. Commoners received their due by more excruciating means, such as drawing and quartering. Today, it seems that U.S. businesses suffer both fates.

For the last four decades, in the name of efficiency, business entities have been ripped into pieces for consolidation with like entities from other regions. These attempts to “economize” draw and quarter the cultures that have made the individual businesses creative and competitive. Employees, the most valuable resource, are driven to other occupations, their process knowledge lost forever. Only the “big brains” are offered a chance to relocate. Machines are moved, too, but the people who do the work are displaced. A manager responsible for these kinds of consolidations confided to me about a recent plant closing and consolidation.

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