Let’s just stop short-term management, OK?
by Miki SaxonBy Wes Ball, author of The Alpha Factor – a revolutionary new look at what really creates market dominance and self-sustaining success. Read all of Wes’ posts here.
OK, here’s the deal.
- We all know that short-term, tactical management is killing American business, right?
- We all recognize that top-level managers in publicly-held corporations are being driven crazy with external pressures from investors and stock analysts so they can’t do the “visionary leadership” job they need to do.
- Most of us have experienced the destructive effects of this corporate ADD as it filters down to the ranks of “worker bees” who are really keeping the company going, yet feel unappreciated.
- We have all seen the exodus of good people who wanted to make a difference for their employer, yet felt they were just wasting their time.
So why does it go on and on? I even see it in privately-held companies, and it frightens me that they would want to embrace this self-destructive behavior.
I’m beginning to believe it’s an impossible problem. So…
I’m throwing out a challenge today for anyone who can show me a publicly-held company that doesn’t have this problem. I want to see that someone has figured out how to overcome this and has been successful at it. I want to believe that it is possible, because I was certainly able to do it in my company – but mine was a privately-held business, so I could ignore people on the outside of my company.
Please, show me that I’m wrong.
Your comments—priceless
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Image credit: byokitis CC license
August 5th, 2008 at 6:15 am
i don’t think they’re a public company, but i’ve always admired W. L. Gore, the makers of Gore-Tex. they have a unique organizational structure. i’ve always wondered if it’s uniquely successful.
August 5th, 2008 at 11:02 pm
I’m not sure it’s actually possible unless there is a leader at the top who is very well respected and can ignore to a certain extent outside pressure. One example would be Steve Jobs.
August 6th, 2008 at 5:49 am
Aaron:
I did not have time today to look at Gore, but will. Thanks for the idea.
Wes
August 6th, 2008 at 5:52 am
James:
Steve Jobs is a great example of a CEO of a public company who maintains leadership. They tried the “professional manager” route with “Mr. Coca Cola” years ago. It was a disaster. Steve’s vision and resistance to outside pressures to do things their way has certainly been the key to their growing success.
Thanks for reminding me about one of my favorite Alpha companies.
August 6th, 2008 at 6:06 am
i think steve jobs successful leadership is partially stemming from the fact that he doesn’t seem to pay attention to daily fluctuations of apple’s stock. he seems to realize that the stock will recover anything it’s lost each time they have a successful launch.
of course, having a detailed communicable vision doesn’t hurt either.