Profit at the Bottom of the Ladder: Creating Value by Investing in Your Workforce

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Developing a Blueprint for Changing Companies and Lives

IN LOOKING AT HOW companies, countries, and the lowest-level employees are faring in the current economy, it becomes clear that there is a pressing need for corporate and government action. In countries around the world, real GDP growth stagnated in 2008 and continued to decrease even further in 2009. The United States’ real GDP grew by 1.1 percent in 2008 and experienced negative growth during the first two quarters of 2009.¹ The majority of European countries likewise experienced negative growth in the first half of 2009.² Even the economic growth of newly industrialized Asian economies slowed down.³

A Pressing Need for Action

The private sector has found itself in an increasingly ...