David Maister said the following more than 30 years ago and, as in most matters, he's both right and more right than ever:
"The assets employed in the business are ... Staff, whose salaries are comparable to assets financed by debt, at a fixed interest rate."
What does that mean?
First let's set aside the ugly connotation that people can be reduced to numbers, to 'things.' We're talking about people being assets because they change over time, for better or worse, for both themselves and their employer. It means the people in the company need to deliver on the investment the company makes in them. And it means — sorry, owner-operators — that it's management's responsibility to improve the value of the asset over time. Put differently, it is the empoloyees responsibility to add value in the short-term, and the company's responsibility to add value in the long-term.