To summarise a number of conversations I’ve had recently, what many business leaders are doing can only be described as short-term thinking. Very few are planning for the next 12 months let alone any further.
A COO I spoke to recently is struggling to balance a number of priorities and knows that, unless he and the MD have a view on what they need to be doing in 1-2 years, they can’t possibly make the right decisions now. And yet, he’s battling to get the time to do this for himself, let alone with the rest of the senior management team. He’s not alone.
For this particular COO, his mindset is definitely towards investment and away from costs – but he has other people to persuade internally, before he goes for the next IT/marketing/people investment cycle. So, how do you plan for the future? How do you encourage your clients / prospects to do this and look at investment in the future, instead of simply cost-cutting today?
If you’d like to contact me directly, please do so sue@suecohen.co.uk
Or send me an invite on LinkedIn and let me know how you found me -
http://uk.linkedin.com/in/suecohen01
As always, your comments are welcome
January 4, 2012 at 11:35 am
I think is true and also is a sad situation, because it goes beyond the problem of crisis and toward the problem of some generations of management.
It’s without any doubt a problem of a global turmoil that makes planning complex, but aiming too short gives immediate results while destroying vale in long term.
Planning in medium-long term, in my opinion is something that requires skills that in most cases current management lacks and, to be honest, the perspective of remaining within same company for a reasonable time. Both of the situations are in place at this time.
CEOs have at most 3 to 5 years before deciding (or having someone do this for them) to change company and retention doesn’t increase too much for other C level executives. Quite probably they will live for short time results and leave a company with no strategic direction.
Solutions? I don’t have in my pocket, but think that:
a) working on a compensation deeply linked to results and retention could help in having executives committed to long term results.
b) explaining to clients the value of a longer term planning in terms of growth of their company can increase their confidence.
January 4, 2012 at 11:36 am
[...] suecohen posted a comment on the fact that “[...] many business leaders are doing can only be described as short-term thinking. Very few are planning for the next 12 months let alone any further. [...]” (full article here). [...]