International Entrepreneur Club
Posts 1-1 of 1
-
Preston Williams IIIThe company name is only visible to registered members.A CEO’s Nightmare: Whatever happened to smart, comprehensive leadership?
A CEO’s Nightmare
In today’s very unstable global economy, it is difficult to keep company growth and market penetration topmost while keeping cost in proper alignment with disappearing revenue. The very things that keep companies alive are in short supply and that scarcity is challenging many of the traditional tools used to benchmark a company’s health, viability and sustainability.
Capital is the lifeblood that allows ALL companies to be birthed and nurtured to maturity.
Credit is in short supply. It is the lifeline that allows many companies, large and small to acquire much needed hardware including servers, computers, routers, hubs, switches, transportation, office space and supplies along with quality talent that is very critical for a company to distinguish its expertise from the competition. Cash strapped companies are quickly finding out that credit has dried up like a shriveled prune.
Advertising is taking a major hit. Unless you are able to forecast a quantifiable, positive cash flow generated as a direct result of using such marketing techniques, such spending is prohibitive. Most organizations are looking very closely at the Return on Investment (ROI) generated from such direct costs. They are abandoning traditional media like TV and newspaper advertising and taking their message to the web. Internet advertising is changing the way companies get messages about their products and services to consumers.
Talent acquisition is taking a back seat to massive staff reduction. In order to stay afloat, some companies are shedding staff as if they are last week’s junk mail. Many do so in order to become lean and streamlined – for now. Very few are visionary enough to contemplate the vestiges of tomorrow’s market place. Somehow they become callous and disinterested in the livelihood of the people they let go. Most do not anticipate that these very same people could show up as the stalwart warriors with the competition or the folks in customer networks now charged with making purchasing decisions regarding their products and/or services.
Allow me to paint a very likely scenario. At some time in the near future, you find yourself at the negotiations table looking to renew a major enterprise contract worth say $12 MM to your $15 MM organization. The new Contracts Manager sitting across the table is a recently fired executive from your company. Backlash is inevitable in some circumstances. Will you be prepared? How? Is there any established best practice approach for handling such a quandary?
Customer satisfaction is on a steep decline. The short-shrift approaches that a lot of organizations have adopted to survive these difficult times are beginning to rub customers the wrong way. Customers endure curt responses, obvious lack of interest in their unique circumstances and a blatant unwillingness to make adjustments to allow them to remain intact while retaining personal dignity and integrity. All of these actions may some day come back to haunt those predatory organizations that are driven by one incentive - profit.
Innovation is in NEUTRAL. Most people with new and exciting ides to change the way we live, work and play are holding back and waiting for the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. Stagnation will be the mainstay for a while.
Brand loyalty is a fickle concept laid bare by the bloodletting of a recession bordering on a painful recession. One of the key questions that every CEO has to keep in the back of their mind is – “When the dust settles and the economy rebounds, will the customers return?”
Whatever happened to smart, comprehensive leadership? What is a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to do? Any suggestions?
Regards,
Preston G.M. Williams III, M.Sc. • CPA • CIS
Former CEO & Managing Partner | GBC® Global Services | PrestonW
- 29 Jul 2009, 04:14 am
