I was saying to my business partner the other day that we have got to be the dumbest people in the world. First, we are in the consulting business which contrary to popular belief is difficult and in the current business climate is darn-right tough. But if that wasn't bad enough - here I am trying to raise funds for a start-up business that we want to launch at year-end. Talk about timing and talk about doors slamming in my face; colleagues not returning phone calls - so I suspect I will not be receiving many Christmas cards this year. And then to cap it all, we have just launched an on-line venture (www.skillswithpeople.com) which took up a lot of energy and effort but which, in this case, I do believe the timing is right.
It has been the mother of all months and I do want to provide my take on events. First the good news - there are still, believe it or not, a large number of companies out there making money, and very good money at that. These tend to be companies that have consistently performed well; have consistently invested in their people, their products and brands and have consistently had a solid management team in place. So despite what the majority of people are saying - there is 'gold in dem hills' - you just have to mine it right. Secondly, and perhaps the bad news - employees are extremely nervous and rightly so. They are not feeling all that confident that they will have a job this side of Christmas as companies start what I call, 'the big corporate clam up,' and that has got to impact corporate performance.
The sad thing is it all becomes a never ending spiral - downwards. As companies clam up, they downsize. As they downsize, people tighten their belts even further, sales fall and companies clam up even more. The spiral gets worse. There will be a time when governments can no longer continue to inject more funds into the economy to prop it up (unless you live in Zimbabwe that is) and companies will have to fend for themselves which will require leadership, innovation, creativity and the art of driving people back to their brands. Unfortunately, the opposite is happening at the moment - companies are cutting back on all those things that stimulate a business and retaining those things that stagnate a business. The laager mentality has set in.
I was energized by Barack Obama's victory speech not because he offered 'hope' but because he offered a vision of how we were going to get out of the mess. Here was a man on a mission. He offered a vision at a time when people had lost confidence in their leaders and his vision was not all about 'bail-outs' from government. It was all embracing in that if we are to get out of this mess, we will have to do it together. Company leaders can well learn from this man. In fact they would do well to emulate him. Now is the time for company leaders to step up, not retreat; to provide a vision not a redundancy package and to clarify their vision and not relegate it to the top drawer of their desk. They should be on the campaign trail visiting their employees in every country in which they do business talking about their vision out of this mess and not held up in some corner office. I read somewhere that people don't join companies because they have a mission statement - they join companies because the company is on a mission. Company leaders, like Obama did so well, need to show themselves as the leaders they truly are and take their vision to every employee across the globe personally. That should be their mission. Then, maybe we will begin to get out of this mess.
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