Should people be treated as assets? A big question !
But the reality out in the world is that if you want to survive you have to have some sustainable strategic advantage. Some advantage that can not be bought or easily copied.
Any technology or system that you can buy can be bought by your competitor, but the people and culture that you have can not be copied or bought - that is why we have only one Toyota or one G.E. I am not saying that there are not other top companies, but what i am trying to say is what they have can not be replicated.
Today it is very crucial that you align your human resources along with your business strategies. Human resource is the sustainable strategic edge that you can hav over others.
Companies today are looking towards Human resource as a means to get sustained competitive advantage as this is an area which cannot be easily imitated by competitors
(Brain Becker, 1996)
.
Achieving competitive advantage through human resources requires that these activities be managed from a strategic perspective
(Cynthia A. Lengnick-Hall, 1988)
Human resource management can help a firm obtain competitive advantage by lowering costs, by increasing sources of product and service differentiation, or by both
(Cynthia A. Lengnick-Hall, 1988)
The people are very valuabel assets of a company. How they are retained is another question.