What is the edge that the best companies have over the rest? It is not products and services, though theirs do tend to be better than the rest. It is not customer intimacy or industry knowledge or creative ideas, though they certainly do not lag behind the competition in these things. The edge is people. I was giving a full day seminar at a Fortune 500 company last week and one of their people stood up and said, "The thing I most like about our company is the people. I just like working with the people here." And that is priceless. It cannot be measured, but it adds to the bottom line in every way imaginable.

It is people who generate and deliver products, services, industry knowledge, innovation, customer intimacy and everything else that makes our businesses thrive. What have you done for your people lately?