Cutting Your Way to Success in Today’s Economy – Are You Kidding?

Today, “Unemployment hits new record” is the main headline on the denverpost.com. It appears that the current definition of executive leadership in many companies is defined as “how quickly can we cut 10% of the workforce”. That’s not leadership – it is the lack of imagination to conceive the correct way to grow out of new challenges. The long term impacts on those left behind become hard to measure, but loyalty to help the company live long enough to fight another day is gone. Other incentives may keep the key players together for now, but when the tide shifts – look out!

The truly great companies which survived previous down cycles and have grown successfully during difficult times have always triumphed because of how they treated their talent. A number of large companies that fit this talent-first profile are highlighted in the book “Built to Last” by Jim Collins. There are also some great examples in Colorado that are smaller in size like CH2M Hill and MWH that put their talent first. That talent combined with the right leadership rewarded these organizations with:

1) the insight to figure out how the competitive landscape had changed
2) the knowledge to deliver new and redesigned offerings to match customers' new needs
3) the courage to quickly execute any required channel changes
4) the skills to develop and acquire new capabilities

All leading to results that drove revenue up in spite of the bad economy.

Why did these organizations succeed? Because everyone cared about the same things and worked together. They felt empowered by the trust and a clear vision that great leaders had established for them. All this success when other companies were cutting investments and expenses until the business just became no longer relevant. What type of organization do you live in? A message to business leaders everywhere - before you cut talent to meet a number, can you lead? Let me know if you agree or am I just short-sighted.