The main concerns for business in 2009 are a new administration, a very different financial marketplace and the need for a cure for the FEAR (False Evidence Appearing Real) of every day life.
Most experts will agree the problem with the financial markets was driven in the beginning by greed that has now been replaced with FEAR of the unknown. What every business person should be focusing on is their future.
Government will try its best to offer all kinds of solutions to our financial woes with a variety of monetary stimulus programs. The trouble with that remedy is summed up best by a quote from the Stult's Situation Report from July 1975: “Our problems are mostly behind us, what we have to do now is fight the solutions.”
“The Employee Handbook for Organizational Change” by Pritchett and Pound puts the remedy for our future like this:
• The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
• The best way to know what's coming is to put yourself in charge of creating the situation you want.
• Be purposeful. Look at what's needed now, and set about doing it.
• Action works like a powerful drug to relieve feelings of FEAR, helplessness, anger, uncertainty or depression. Mobilize yourself because you will be the primary architect of your future.
• One of the keys to being successful in your efforts is to anticipate.
• Accept the pasts, focus on the future and anticipate.
• Consider what's coming, what needs to happen and how you can rise to the occasion.
• Stay loose. Remain flexible. Be light on your feet. Instead of changing with the times, make a habit of changing just a little ahead of the times.
Arnold Glasow put it best: “The trouble with the future is that it usually arrives before we're ready for it.” The following are a few more quotes that seem appropriate in this economic climate:
• “Running an organization is easy when you don't know how, but very difficult when you do.” Price Pritchett.
• “Things will get better, despite our efforts to improve them.” Will Rogers.
• “The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.” Oscar Wilde.
Editor's note: A portion of this column ran last month in the San Diego Business Journal.
Most experts will agree the problem with the financial markets was driven in the beginning by greed that has now been replaced with FEAR of the unknown. What every business person should be focusing on is their future.
Government will try its best to offer all kinds of solutions to our financial woes with a variety of monetary stimulus programs. The trouble with that remedy is summed up best by a quote from the Stult's Situation Report from July 1975: “Our problems are mostly behind us, what we have to do now is fight the solutions.”
“The Employee Handbook for Organizational Change” by Pritchett and Pound puts the remedy for our future like this:
• The best way to predict the future is to invent it.
• The best way to know what's coming is to put yourself in charge of creating the situation you want.
• Be purposeful. Look at what's needed now, and set about doing it.
• Action works like a powerful drug to relieve feelings of FEAR, helplessness, anger, uncertainty or depression. Mobilize yourself because you will be the primary architect of your future.
• One of the keys to being successful in your efforts is to anticipate.
• Accept the pasts, focus on the future and anticipate.
• Consider what's coming, what needs to happen and how you can rise to the occasion.
• Stay loose. Remain flexible. Be light on your feet. Instead of changing with the times, make a habit of changing just a little ahead of the times.
Arnold Glasow put it best: “The trouble with the future is that it usually arrives before we're ready for it.” The following are a few more quotes that seem appropriate in this economic climate:
• “Running an organization is easy when you don't know how, but very difficult when you do.” Price Pritchett.
• “Things will get better, despite our efforts to improve them.” Will Rogers.
• “The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.” Oscar Wilde.
Editor's note: A portion of this column ran last month in the San Diego Business Journal.