Five Foes of Business Take to Twitter
The Five Foes of Business made a revenue-rattling return to their productivity-spooking ways just in time for Halloween.
The Foes even took to Twitter to espouse their villainous views.
You can keep tabs on the latest thoughts and happenings for each of the villains. They’re on Twitter @PaperMonster5F, @DoubleEntry5F, @BlackHole5F, @ProfitTaker5F and @Strata5F. Or follow them all in the Five Foes of Business public Twitter list.
It wasn’t clear precisely when Paper Monster, Double Entry, Black Hole, Profit Taker and Strata showed up. That’s because business leaders deciding what to start, stop and continue for 2015 didn’t spot the quintet themselves. They only noticed the wake of inefficiencies that the Foes wrought upon their businesses in the past year.
Some speculated the Foes have operated without detection for years and might continue to do so for years to come. They’ll remain mostly unnoticed without strong technology solutions, however.
"Foes are so common in organizations that people accept them as a normal part of doing business and don’t realize how costly they are,” said Eric Alessi, President & CEO of Essent, a provider of integrated business management solutions. "If you want to solve a problem, you need to identify it. I created the Five Foes as a fun and educational way to put a name and face to the most common productivity problems in business.”
Each Foe has its own way of sneaking into businesses before they take your time and money -- and come back for more. Yet they can be hard to spot. Essent is providing dossiers for each of the Five Foes to make them easier to spot.
- Paper Monster just looks like a harmless stack of paper until he grows unmanageable.
- Double Entry often isn’t noticed at least until the second entry is already complete or unavoidable.
- Black Hole can reside deep in a filing cabinet, an obscure drawer or a colleague’s head – anywhere that critical information isn’t easily accessible.
- Profit Taker thrives on inefficient Customer Relationship Management, which leads to missed opportunities.
- Strata just looks like a harmless spreadsheet, until the spreadsheets spiral out of control.
The solution is an integrated business management system and business environment that prevents the Five Foes from growing out of control. Electronic documentation thwarts Paper Monster; an integrated critical path stops Double Entry; centralized e-document management closes Black Hole; a thriving CRM platform leaves Profit Taker little to take; and the proper technological tools slow the growth of Strata’s spreadsheets.