Quick! What organization has, in about six months, gone from being virtually non-existent to being a larger employer than 96% of all U.S. businesses? I’ll give you a couple of hints: it is run by a woman, and by this time next year it will either be non-existent or poised to become the most powerful group of people on Earth. Give up?
Hillary Clinton’s political campaign.
And no, I’m not being partisan. Hillary’s is the largest right now, but others from both parties are nipping, albeit sometimes wishfully, at her heels. But let’s take a look at this from an organizational growth standpoint…
In less than six months she has added 350 staffers. They’ve had to crank up personal, and if lucky, government-paid security. They’ve had to craft a vision, usually with just the right amount of haziness to allow future modification, on a potpouri of disparate issues. Their customers include both fringe hard-liners that are necessary to secure the nomination, as well as the centrist bell curve of the average American required to achieve the ultimate goal. Competitive intelligence requires keeping tabs on what every competitor is saying at every minute, and being in position to respond the next minute. As well as digging into what every competitor has ever said in his or her life, hoping to dig up a propensity for tapping shoes in bathroom stalls. All income comes from volunteer donors, and is subject (supposedly) to limits. Required travel: 100%.
Think of the organizational issues involved in such an undertaking, and you can understand how "experts" from previous campaign wars become so valuable. When the most powerful job on the planet is at stake, and a billion will be spent to determine the outcome of the contest, best practices are scrutinized down to the most miniscule detail. Perhaps too much so… thereby losing heart and soul in deference to vague sound bites.
Who would really like to run that type of organization? I love a good challenge, but personally I’d much rather be sitting on a beach with a Corona, dreaming of changing my latitude.
Lenny Overton says
Damn, that’s scary.
You’d think they’d know just a bit more about the problems of business. I wonder if any of their staffs are unionized, and what their stance on unions would be if they decided to strike in, say, late October of next year!