The placebo effect is when a sick person is healed by believing they’ve taking medicine that has no redeeming value. Someone is given a sugar pill or told a particular false remedy will cure what ails them and miraculously they feel better and in some cases they ARE made better. They are cured. The placebo effect plays tricks on the mind.

Sick companies need a placebo. They need people to think they can. Sick companies need a common vision pointing the way out. The employees need something to believe the company will get healthy again. Companies needing change, needing nursing, needing to come back from sickness, need a bizcebo more than anything else. A bizcebo is a placebo for sick companies.

The vital organs of a company are its people. If they believe in the path out, amazing things will happen. There are no physiological problems ailing companies. Science is not at the core. It’s the people.

How do we fix companies today? We do it in parts. We cut expenses, (mostly the people,) reduce investment, we hunker down. There is no plan. There is no vision of the end. It’s about getting from one day to the next. This approach heals very little.

A bizcebo is a powerful plan and message that says: This is how we get better. This is the medicine that will cure us. It gets to the core of the problem. It’s comprehensive and it’s easy to understand. It starts with the leader. It is reiterated everyday in words and actions.

Ailing companies need a bizcebo. They need a remedy that get’s employees to believe. Once they believe, it will get better. Like the placebo effect, it’s more about what people believe than the medicine they are taking.