TIME TO TALK ABOUT THE COMMERCIAL VALUE OF TIME

“TIME IS MONEY”, “TIME WELL SPENT” AND “TIME WASTED CANNOT BE RECOVERED”, ARE AMONG STATEMENTS WE ARE ALL FAMILIAR WITH. THIS ARTICLE PUTS NEW MEANING IN THESE STATEMENTS IN A WAY THAT RESONATES WITH THE MENTALITY AND EXPECTATIONS OF A CAREER PERSON.

Talking about the?Commercial Value of Time (CVoT)?will take tones of imagination. Let us imagine a stadium which stages horse races, rat races, donkey races, and dog races, and sells entry tickets to eager spectators. Each animal has a specific race day, so the races are not mixed nor are they staged concurrently on the same day. In time a pattern sets in such that the horse race-days attract more customers and earn more revenue than race-days of any of the other three animals. A descending order is set in terms of revenue earned.

From the above assumptions we can view the CVoT as the amount of revenue a horse race earns in an hour or a day. This value is higher than for any of the other animals. We may then advance several attributes about CVoT:

·??????It is not fixed but dynamic

·??????It is easy to express it in monetary or commercial value

·??????Race organizers and customers are intuitively aware of it

·??????It can be applied beyond animal races to many other commercial ventures, including professional careers.

Our talk about CVoT will dwell more on the last of the items above and in that regard, we need to create a suitable context. Our context is in the form of a step-pyramid that is rounded in shape and has no corners or straight sides.

The CVoT Pyramid

CVoT is measured along the vertical axis of the pyramid, and the horse will be at the highest level. The rest of the animals will respectively occupy the lower levels.?

Relating the CVoT pyramid to careers will call for more imagination as well as assumptions as outlined below:

i)???????????????Basic Assumptions about CVoT:

????????-The pyramid constantly spins in one direction

????????-The spin of the pyramid is the dynamic nature of the employment and work market, or?

??????????the need to keep up working on a career as a way of survival, growth and development.

????????-CVoT is a value that can be expressed in money terms but is made up of more than

??????????money. Considerations like prestige, clout, self-actualization, job-satisfaction,

??????????influence, opportunities, lifestyle are all in the basket.

?????????-CVoT is an opportunity and not a career runner. It has limited space.

??????????-A career runner who, for example, plays soccer, coaches in music, and breeds quails

is?running on three separate CVoT pyramids.

ii)??????????????Horizontal spaces of the pyramid

A horizontal level of the pyramid represents the commercial value of the work done. A worker strives to lift the commercial value of their work to the next higher level. Various ways to raise the CVoT include producing both higher quantity and value and improving skills, qualifications and technology. In the pyramid these efforts are represented by the worker running in the direction opposite to the spin of the entire pyramid. So the worker is referred to as a career runner. Running at the same speed amounts to a standstill, neither gain nor loss. A relative slower speed means becoming less competitive in the career run, and a high relative speed means one is ready to lift CVoT to the next higher level.

iii)????????????Prospects for raising CVoT

For CVoT to rise to the next higher level, there has to be a “vacuum”. The vacuum is created when a career runner in the upper level slows to a standstill, goes slower than the speed of the spin and drops to a “vacuum” at the next lower level. This fall leaves a vacuum to attract a coincidental rise from the lower level. This raised CVoT is associated with a career runner whose run was faster than the spin of the pyramid. At this point it should also be stated that space for lower CVoT is greater at the lower parts of the pyramid and gets less and less towards the upper levels. So opportunities higher up are more “squeezed”. Comfort zones are also less at the upper levels of the pyramid.

Professional soccer resonates well with the CVoT pyramid. Somebody like?Christiano Ronaldo (CR7)?started at some level of the pyramid because of his talent and decision. At that level he was at par with numerous other budding soccer players. Through consistency, focus and intelligent work, he managed to raise his CVoT to near the top of the pyramid. At that level he finds himself at par with fewer players, unlike where he started about two decades ago.

For most of his career, CR7 was obviously running faster than the spin of the soccer CVoT pyramid. There were players who stood still at some levels of the pyramid, and others who slowed down and dropped their CVoT to lower levels.

Versatility is an attribute of the CVoT pyramid. Human Resource Management departments have improvement of CVoT as their mission, same case with universities. And the same can be said of the policies, strategies and programmes of a country’s ministry in charge of education.?

The CVoT of a horse is definitely due to a collection of factors, some of which are elusive. In contrast, pin-pointing technology’s role in raising a career runner’s CVoT is beyond question. Accessories and props also come in handy, especially as relates to marketing and creation of ambience in entertainment amenities.

CVoT is loosely a law of nature. It is the logic underpinning the design of staff grading structures and salary structures. It is casualty driven: Christiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi must be coinciding casualties for other players to rise to the pinnacle. Likewise the slate of current leading world powers like Germany , Japan, USA, Russia and China must vacate for a different set up to find a position on top of the arrangement.