Working for one of the biggest FTSE 100 companies can be intresting, rewarding but also seriously frustrating. Im the sort that likes to know whats happening but recently it seems that staff are always that last to know about things no matter how important or trivial.

Earlier this year my employer laid off a sizeable nnumber of staff and how did we all find out? A quick search through google gave us information regarding numbers to be laid off. Even on the day itself, our CEO sent a company wide email which didnt give as much detail as the BBC were reporting. Its shocking to think that even with important messages staff play second fiddle to external sources.

The new CEO promised to shake up how staff are communicated to by becoming more open, encouraging / demanding his management team are more open and approachable and talking to us like adults not children. A couple of months on and it seems the CEO is true to his word with a number of refreshing emails being sent company wide and same day responses to staff questions. Hopefully this will continue and everyone will be pulling in the same direction.

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 Alot or at least it seems that way. Tech Crunch reported that Facebook is looking to get funding using a value of $2bn. Lets just dwell on that point. $2bn for what? A company that has not turned profit yet? $2bn for the potential to make money from the reported 200m users??

 Having that many users is a great achievement but no revenue streams have been found that are strong enough to bring Facebook back into the black. According to Tech Crunch Facebook is burning $20m a month in cash so that $2bn Valuation must be based on the the brand and its potential. $2bn for a name, thats a little excessive.

 Five years on, not one cent in profit and over $500m in investment. The future may not be that rosy unless Facebook can find how to monetize their offering. There are a number of different approaches Facebook could take from a self driven advertising based model, advertising tie ups with someone like Google, charge for the service or become a platform and let others use the service to sell applications or products and take a small percentage. The jury is out but the clock is ticking. A company can only survive so long burning $20m a month.

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