Golfing in a Postcrisis World

You are in luck, dear reader.

A few days ago two magazines landed on my desk, the Harvard Business Review and Golf. I subscribe to the former and find many of the articles beautifully researched and brilliant, so when a “we gotta make a splash on the newstand” issue crosses my desk, I take notice.

I do not subscribe to Golf magazine, as many of you know about my general fascination and high regard for the sport. In punishment, over the years, a free subscription somehow finds its way to me each month.

In any case, this particular HBR concluded, in the words of its editor, that “the landscape of business has been forever altered” and that we were now entering a “postcrisis world.” One of the articles within is entitled “Leadership in a (Permanent) Crisis.” Another, “The End of Rational Economics.” A third, “Shareholders First? Not So Fast.”

Does anyone (who is not selling a book, or offering consulting services) really, truly believe that the world has changed so radically in the last year that we are entering some kind of brave, new future where all of our old skills have to be retooled? Where all of our thinking about consumers has to be altered? Where the shareholder won’t come first?

The second magazine, Golf, in a more modest way promises simply to improve our power off the tee.

I have been through both issues in great detail and offer you this short course on how to hit longer drives in this new postcrisis world.

You may need paper and pencil. Ready?

Here goes.

1. Prepare for slower long-term growth in global consumption. (Stand up straight with the club out in front of you.)

2. Shift investment to Asia. (Flex your knees until you feel comfortable and athletic.)

3. Focus on older consumers. (Bend at your hips down to the ball.)

4. Find ways to offer luxury on a budget. (Assume a more neutral grip.)

5. Seize immediate opportunities presented by the recession, particularly M&A. (Tee the ball so the center is just below the top of the clubhead.)

6. Refine your purchasing strategy. (Get wide in your takeaway.)

7. Foster adaption, helping people develop the “next practices” that will enable your organization to thrive in a new world. (Feel like you’re turning into the inside of your right leg.)

8. Embrace disequilibrium, keeping people in a state that creates enough discomfit to induce change but not so much that they fight, flee or freeze. (You should see wrinkles in your right pants pocket.)

9. Generate leadership, giving people at all levels of the organization the opportunity to lead experiments that will help it adapt to changing times. (Keep the club low to the ground.)

10. Monitor foundational changes in digital technology and public policy that could alter competitive dynamics. (Keep your hands as far away from your head as possible.)

11. Assess how well your company participates in the movement of knowledge, talent and capital. (Turn your shoulders more and swing your arms less.)

12. Cut back on protective services, since overseas travel is down and fewer employees are at risk abroad. (Make sure your back will be facing the target at the end of your backswing.)

13. Overhaul the management practices that have caused destructive outsourcing decisions. (Start down slowly.)

14. Visit the corporate data center and re-examine the logic of data-center ownership. (Focus your whole swing around your spine.)

15. Retool for the neighborhood general store of the future. (Maintain your address posture throughout.)

16. Stress-test your business model under different globalization scenarios. (Try sucking in your stomach.)

17. Dispense with the view that the only objective of management is to increase shareholder value. (Keep sucking.)

Now, SWING!

Hey--you missed the ball completely?!

After all that helpful advice?

I hate when that happens.

Posted by Entrepreneur Generations

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