Companies and organizations open up to new ways of looking inside themselves
8th June 2023.
Inventory: to look inside and register what is found.
Until now companies have been used to doing one type of inventory: warehouse. It has traditionally been the most important one within an organization because somehow it represents the heart of the accounting & financial system; inventories reflect the flow of goods (in all their different stages of production) that feeds any activity based on the sale of products according to a series of management criteria.
Regardless of who does it (a robot, a junior auditor, a financial team or the self-employed or entrepreneur...) «inventory» is performed in a material dimension (financial) and it is the origin of the changes in inventories, that room on financial statements where everything fits. It represents something tangible and quantifiable (how much I have of "something", how fast "something" is sold, what is the average buying price of something, how much it is earned with each "something" sold, etc.) .
And although in every organization there are many closets and drawers where goods of any kind are stored, there is one specific place, corporate governance, where the most valuable GOOD (Note 1) of all is kept: the existence itself, identity.
The increasing focus of people towards building relationships based on cooperation, harmony, peace and abundance is leading many companies to take inventories in other dimensions (and to open new dimensions of analysis in traditional ones) that help them look inside their very own existence and to review their sense of being.
Some of the main characteristics of these multidimensional inventories and differences with those performed on a purely material level are:
They are voluntary initiatives, not subject to any legal framework (therefore not "externally" imposed).
They move away from a lineal and quantitative approach and open a new way of understanding existence, relationships and the use of resources.
They do not entail judgement nor verdict; there is learning and inspiration to open new paths.
They have a starting point but no end; thanks to them new parameters and values are integrated in daily decisions.
They are focus on the "inside"and do not pay attention to the external world because there is no benchmark. They are performed in the privacy of the "house".
Unlike accounting inventories these ones do not start at a specific time on the calendar. Each organization approaches them in due time, when the "head" of the organization is ready because the main requirements are courage, honesty and willingness to change. Crisis, in general, are always good triggers.
The opening of closets can be scary because sometimes we might not know (not want to) see what is inside. But it is truly an exciting adventure that opens the heart and leads to a truly intuitive and qualitative management style that benefits (it does good) all humankind.
Recommended reading: Poem VALOR (COURAGE) (only spanish). Go to BUBBLES - POEMS.
Note 1: In Spanish the word EXISTENCIAS (plural) refers to inventory stocks (current assets and goods, raw materials, work-in-process, finished goods...) and EXISTENCIA (singular) also refers to existence used on a more philosophical context.