I’ve been trying to post about the financial hell and how I’ve never seen anything quite like this, but haven’t quite hit the right way to approach the blog. I have seen big dips over the last 25 years of working with businesses. Without handing out consultant speak and giving a mini-lesson on systems theory and Peter Senge, big corporate swings – over corrections that bleed the lifeblood of the company – resemble corporate anorexia. I won’t bother to tell the stories I’ve seen, and been brought in to help fix later.
This current reality is unprecedented, and I’m in fear sometimes, too. Would love to say I’m not, and most of the time I am more positive than hopeless, but this is real. ALL my newer clients have put holds or dropped projects from the budgets. (So I have time on my calendar, folks! Take advantage of it and contact me! lol). Kind of hard to stay in denial when it hits my work. My best asset is a long history of doing good work and seeing many ups and downs. But back to Corporate America.
Wanting to cut, and cut hard, is understandable but still dangerous. Get on a budget, yes. Delay optional new initiatives, maybe so. Historically, though, a couple years after these big swings, the cuts usually end up costing more than if the company used the time to improve and get more lean but NOT go into big sweeping layoffs. These “swing” businesses spend more money to recoup the lost talent and, averaged, have saved nothing. And this behavior doesn’t factor in the cost to the people impacted, either. My friend and colleague Lisa Jackson has said it as well as it could be said, so I will relinquish the blog mike to her, and ask that you read Lisa’s posting.
Find her at http://blog.jacksonandschmidt.com. I’m sure she would welcome comments as much as I would.
