I love Austin, it’s on the list of places my lovely bride and I may move to some day.  Some day after my younger son decides to fly out of the nest for college…  It’s a fun place, nice people, good food, great weather (no snow), and a very vibrant art scene.

I’m here with my colleagues from The Delta Associates. We are partnering together to deliver results of the Workforce Engagement Assessments my firm conducted for their clients.  It’s a very strong relationship, we are friends and business associates.  They don’t do what I do, I can’t do what they do, we are significantly better together than I am alone.  And the clients are happy.

The two clients couldn’t be any more different.  One is a 70 year-old quasi-governmental agency with nearly 2500 associates, the other is a relatively new technology company with about 225 employees. There are significantly more differences between these two organizations than there are similarities, but one thing is consistent among both organization; the knowledge that their people are a competitive advantage that other organizations in their space don’t have, and can’t steal.

In a down economy like we are experiencing now (and will be living through for the next 18 months), consumers buy less, whether they are buying for their family, or investing in their business.  Companies are cutting costs to keep prices low, or lower than their competition in order to increase their share of market or share of wallet.

But both of the client organizations understand the “Drizin Mantra”- Customers buy products and services from companies, but form relationships with people.  People (employees) are the make-or-break strategy for success.

I participated in a meeting yesterday with my colleagues at The Delta Associates and an HR Manager of a large Austin-based organization.  During our meeting, conversation bounced around a lot.  Much discussion of “business” with sprinklings of “get-to-know-you” thrown in every 20 minutes or so.  During one of those sprinklings, we discovered that we were both born in Cincinnati.  Discussions quickly drifted to memories of Skyline Chili and Graeters Ice Cream, two Cincinnati landmarks.

However, we both remembered how good the service was at the Ice Cream place.  The best ice cream in the world (Ask the folks at Food Network if you don’t believe me), and what we were talking about is how well we were treated by the minimum-wage paid ice-cream scooper.  The power of people.

The Power of People…  are you tapping into this resource?