Posts Tagged ‘downturn’
Your business model, strategy, organization & execution: A year of CEO Challenges!
Posted by Rick McPartlin on April 6th, 2010
It seems like only yesterday that we were throwing around ideas for what would become the CEO Challenge. It’s been a year now, and we’re so pleased with the feedback we’ve received from clients, colleagues and collaborators. Seems we’ve struck a few chords, and that’s great to hear, especially because our messages aren’t always pleasant. “Your business model is Best of the Worst! Your organization is in chaos! You need to think like a Chief Revenue Officer!”
This month, Jane and I decided to revisit the twelve posts we’ve published to date. For those of you who have been reading a while … how many of these Challenges have you accepted? Have you implemented the action plans?
The Cost of Chaos
Posted by Jane Adamson on February 2nd, 2010
During the first week of the new year, when we tend to gaze optimistically at the road ahead, a headline from the Associated Press announced “Americans’ job satisfaction lowest in 22 years.”
The article then went on to say “That is the lowest level ever recorded by the Conference Board research group in over 22 years of studying the issue. If the job satisfaction trend is not reversed, economists say, it could stifle innovation and hurt America’s competitiveness and productivity. It also could make unhappy older workers less inclined to take the time to share their knowledge and skills with younger workers.”
Well, that got my attention! Of course there are many reasons for the decline, including the worst recession since the 1930s and the fact that downsizing has created more work and more demands on the workers who’ve survived the cuts. That doesn’t change the fact, however, that such a decline has somber implications for businesses, and executive teams need to address this issue in their organizations.
Are You a “Best of the Worst” Company?
Posted by Rick McPartlin on September 1st, 2009
Lately I’ve been talking with a lot of CEOs about a concept I call “Best of the Worst” (BOTW). The term is harsh, but many executives quickly realize that yes, their organizations have a lot in common with BOTW companies like, say, GM.
In boom times, BOTW companies are enormously confident in and proud of their performance. They’re meeting Wall Street’s projections and their internal short-term metrics. They think they’re invaluable to their customers and are immune to the whims of the market. In other words, they think they’re doing everything right.
But then the environment changes. The market sours, the economy tanks, new competitors show up, legislation kicks in, or some other external variable shifts. Sales and profits plummet.
What do BOTW companies do? They blame these uncontrollable external variables for their woes. Then they just try to survive until the boom times return.
