If you don't change the meeting, the company will end. Part 1

Have you ever wondered what kind of work you spend a lot of time in your working hours?
Of course, the business content differs depending on the type of business.

However, if you work for a general company, I think that you can roughly divide it into the following answers.

① Document preparation (proposal preparation, management documents, etc.)

② Meeting

③ Sales / Business negotiations

④ Move

⑤ Others (breaks, training, etc.)

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any data to investigate the time allocation of business contents.

Looking at the situation of my business partners, I think that the time for business negotiations or “meetings” has increased considerably due to the change in the working environment due to the corona disaster.

For me personally, even though I get tired of three meetings a day, I have run out of travel time due to remote work, so now I have four meetings a day, and at most seven.

Yes, it is an indispensable “meeting” for business people, and it is this “meeting” that consumes a lot of daily business hours.Certainly, it is a good time to increase the number of “meetings” with the spread of remote work.

However, if this “meeting” increases, the amount of work does not necessarily increase.Rather, it may spread the loss to the company.Therefore, we are entering an era in which “increasing meetings” by remote work has a great positive and negative impact on the company’s business performance.

Now, I would like to talk about how to improve the quality of “meetings”.First, you need to know the following assumptions.If you don’t know this premise, most of the time you won’t be able to learn even if you tell them a specific method.

I think you can understand the reason by listening to this premise.

One of the premise is “knowing the cost of the meeting”.

“Well, most meetings are held at the company, so there is no cost for meeting rooms.”

I can hear the voice.Certainly, remote work meetings and the like do not seem to cost money, whether at home or at home.However, in reality, many bills are flying with feathers during the meeting. I can’t see it, but …

The answer is labor costs.So here is the question.Assuming that the average amount of money taken by those who participate in the “meeting” is 300,000 yen, please calculate how much the labor cost (meeting fee) will be if 6 people participate in the 2-hour meeting.

* There are other prerequisites, but they will be omitted once.

The answer is 67,500 yen.

Now, I will explain what kind of calculation was done.First of all, the cost that the company prepares for 300,000 employees is about 900,000.The company puts 300,000 in its bank account every month (as you probably know), but also pays other company-paid insurance, taxes, etc. In addition, the company is responsible for the accumulation of retirement allowances and welfare expenses.

Other expenses not stated in the salary statement, such as office leasing, recruitment expenses, training expenses, development expenses, advertising expenses, general affairs / personnel management expenses, etc.

It increases almost in proportion to the size of the company (number of employees).

If you can see the company’s PL (income statement), try the following calculation.

SG & A expenses (total expenses such as personnel expenses, office leasing, management expenses such as general affairs and personnel) ÷ personnel expenses x 100% = SG & A expenses to personnel expenses ratio.

If you calculate this, I think it will be about 250-300%.

Therefore, in the case of a take-home payment of 300,000 yen, (300%), the company should have prepared 900,000 yen, which is tripled, as the necessary funds per person.(Actually, it does more complicated calculations, but …)

And if the working days per person per month are 20 days and the working hours per day are 8 hours,The daily salary is 900,000 yen ÷ 20 days = 45,000 yen Furthermore, the hourly wage is 45,000 yen ÷ 8 hours = 5,625 yen Will be.

Therefore, we will enter the number of participants and the meeting time.

Then,5,625 yen x 6 people x 2 hours = 67,500 yenThat is why.

The company pays about 70,000 for the “meeting”A meaningless “meeting” was held,If the number of employees who are aware that the meeting is “not expensive” increases,It is difficult to have a motive to improve the quality of “meeting”,Further low-level meetings follow.The end of this company is not difficult to imagine.

in this way,In response to the increase in “meetings” due to the spread of remote work Before improving the quality of the “meeting” First of all, the meeting itself is “expensive” If neither the management nor the employees understand that, Did you understand that you can’t move on to the next explanation?

I will talk about the following assumptions.

First of all, it is a bad example of a business man’s meeting (before) that I have seen.

① Participate without knowing what the other members were on the calendar.

② I know the theme of the meeting, but I participate without preparing anything.

The etymology of “meeting” comes from the performance of “gagaku”. “Gagaku” is ancient Japanese music and dance that is transmitted in Miyanaka and temples and shrines.

In Gagaku, wind instruments such as sho, stringed instruments such as loquat, and percussion instruments such as drums are used. In order to match those rhythms, hitting a percussion instrument such as a shakubyoshi to get a beat was called a “meeting”. This turned into a meeting that meant “getting things right.”

A big hint is hidden in the way of “meeting” from the origin of the etymology.

Everyone practices, such as wind instruments, stringed instruments, and percussion instruments, to create a single piece of music at a “meeting”.
However, there is a condition for this, “unless each individual practices, we cannot have a meeting.”

Therefore, if the “meeting” is not prepared, as in the case of the bad businessman introduced earlier, the meeting will be meaningless.

To conclude, a “meeting” is a place to reconcile individual surveys and plans.

I define a series of tasks that share my opinions and claims and incorporate them into everyone’s tasks as a “meeting.”

The graduate school (MBA) I took also gives me a lot of homework.During class time, a lot of time was spent presenting the assignment.

If you can’t do the assignment, it makes no sense to attend the class.Unlike compulsory education, graduate school goes at private expense.Therefore, everyone should know some lessons.

That’s why I don’t want to waste my lessonsThat was the only way to do the task desperately.

What do you think.I don’t know that the meeting costs money.I don’t know the contents of the “meeting”, I don’t prepare Is there a future for a company with such employees?

The meaning of the main subject, “If you don’t change the meeting, the company will end” I was allowed to attach it for the above reasons.

Now, after knowing this premise,How to change the meeting ,.I will talk about that in the next column.

Sentence: Hiroshi Ashida

● Column articles are scheduled for the 1st of every month.

Scheduled to be released in January Column content: “If you do not change the meeting, the company will end. Part 2”