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Let’s scan some of those headlines. “The dollar has been toppled as the world’s leading currency.” “American corporate pensions in turbulence.” “Wasting public money; the long and expensive road.” Behind each of these headlines is a decade’s long string of decisions by smart people and forks in the road leading to unintended consequences. The people who made them were probably facing the same kinds of stresses and pressures as you are today. They were business and government leaders who were often dealing with tough situations ranging from sweating over the quarterly numbers to courting a fickle and restless electorate.
In the early 1980’s I worked at a TV network with a legendary programmer who’s face appeared on the cover of Time magazine over the label; “Man With the Golden Gut.” I recall being in a meeting where he said, “let’s do that (replace a low rated show) since we can’t do any worse than we already are.” Well, we found out that we could do worse, much worse. A decision had been made with an eye on next month’s Nielsen ratings rather than tackling the more arduous task of hammering out a long-range view to solving fundamental problems. The lesson is worth noting, whether you are running a home based business of one person or a globe-spanning corporation.
In a story often attributed to hard living entertainers such as Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. there is a line that says, “If I’d known I’d live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.” Imagine being a fly in the room with negotiators for the big three auto companies in the 1960s. Promises were being made to the United Auto Workers that they’d have lifetime company paid pensions and health care benefits. The short term result was the desired labor peace and smiles all around the table where everyone felt well taken care of. Today they are all in trouble because they didn’t think about what it would mean for all the stakeholders over the long haul. We now know the long term prognosis is trillions of dollars in unfunded liabilities, broken promises and potential bankruptcy. It was a short term strategy, not a real solution.
Another example is our country’s airlines which have come to resemble bus lines in the sky. Not only are pension promises casting a long cold shadow, think of the 14 trillion frequent flier miles that they have to account for. Of course, it seemed like a smart promotional idea at the time the programs were created beginning with American Airlines. Sometimes there is a massive disconnect between what we know to be a sustainable long term course and the pressures we feel to “go along to get along.” The “comprehensive” immigration reform bill that is now on life support in Washington is a sparkling example of a lack of clear thinking and will on the part of legislators.
Perhaps both business owners and executives have to see the future through a different prism than their counterparts of past decades. Though we all expect and hope to do better than we may have previously, it will often take a different form. One of your most frequent questions should be “how should I process this new development?” It is great and even necessary to dream big. The lesson I take from current developments is that you have to put strong and durable wheels on those dreams—so they roll for the long haul.
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