| Volume
8, Issue 4 - April, 2009
My
friend Joan Steidl was recently asked about her thoughts on the
election. She responded, “We are living in a rapidly changing
world. Both parties are offering old solutions that haven’t
worked. What we really need are some new ideas.”
Her words have haunted me.
Our traditional semi-free market approach isn’t working as
demonstrated by the problems surfacing with big corporations these
last few years. Socialism on the other hand has never worked and
many European Socialist countries are moving towards more semi-free
markets. Both of these approaches have been hierarchical, top down,
command and control models that favored big business and big government.
At the same time, the world seems to be collapsing before our very
eyes. Industries are failing, people are losing their jobs, our
government grows ever bigger and demands a bigger portion of our
resources while our political leaders are telling us that Bank of
America, AIG, General Motors and others are too big to fail. Enough
is enough!
The models we have used and are using date back to the late 19th
century when the problem was how to get semi-skilled workers to
do the same things over and over again, consistently and efficiently.
The hierarchical models of leadership in business and government
are no longer appropriate in today’s world. This is especially
true when you realize today’s economy demands innovative,
individualized solutions. It is time for new ideas... and new faces.
The basic truth is that big organizations are sluggish, have big
problems and the potential for big corruption. Small organizations
are agile, have small problems and the potential for corruption
is kept small.
One of the lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan has been the success
of more efficient and effective methods to achieve the objective
while minimizing collateral damage. We have seen the transition
from massive carpet bombing to individual smart bombs, from large
helicopters and planes to small unmanned drones and large troop
movements to small special operations units.
In science there is a growing interest in Quantum Physics (the
study of the smallest individual units of energy) which is radically
different than the science we have known.
The time has come to move away from large, slow moving, corrupt
institutions to smaller more adaptable, innovative and agile ones.
Large entities must be reduced into smaller more malleable units.
Then if they fail, the downside is minimized. More smaller organizations
will innovate and try different approaches giving us more options
from which to chose.
If you incorporate the idea that the future of products and services
lies in more customized solutions. Smaller more focused and adaptable
organizations are the only solution.
Even in down economies there are opportunities. For me, there has
been a growing interest in my “Inventor Coaching” program.
It seems that people are looking for alternative ways of generating
income and want to explore how to capitalize on ideas they have
for new products and services. This is a program that I have been
presenting at Lakeland Community College and more recently for Geauga
County Community and Economic Development as well as with individual
inventors. Email me for more information about the program.
Improving Productivity, Performance and Profitability is always
of interest in any economy. I have an employee survey that consists
of 25 questions. When completed and returned to me, I am then able
to provide an analysis that shows areas for improvement and provides
potential productivity, performance and profitability benefits that
can be derived from further initiatives in specific areas. If you
would like to learn how you can improve productivity, performance
and profitability in your organization, call me toll free at (866)
598-8450 today.
Have a subject you would like to see covered in future issues of
“Taking Aim”? Please send me an email at aim@CannonAdvantage.com.
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Robert E. Cannon
Management Consultant
13985 Aquilla Road
Burton, OH 44021 USA
866.598.8450 phone/v-mail
440.834.1052 facsimile
aim@cannonadvantage.com
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isolated by the changes round us."
- Nena O'Neil
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