Article written by Corneliu Bodea for republica.ro
Never has anything given me greater satisfaction in my work than planning. I guess I’m the type of business leader focused on what the literature calls “value proposition focus” rather than “value delivery focus,” which isn’t necessarily good, but that’s the way it is. Defining the strategy to be followed, framing it in the multi-annual strategic plan, defining strategic objectives and planning are activities that I will always love.
If in September you define the strategic objectives and generate the debate for the operational and specific ones, it means that at the end of October-beginning of November you can look at some budgets for the first time. Of course they will need adjustments and so in December you could go on the Christmas holidays with a budget completed for next year. It sounds simple, although we know that it is not the analysis of external factors, of the resources you have, they are detailed activities and IQ and EQ compete to generate substance and to convince unbelievers.
With all the pleasure I find in such activities, I can’t help but be confused about the prospect of 2021! How do we evaluate from the perspective of external factors of the organization this year !? Inflation or deflation, decline or return, calm or revolution…? A year difficult to feel and impossible to frame. I think that 2021 will be the year in which the pandemic will end and I vaguely estimate that before the summer we will return to normal from this point of view. How deep will the health crisis be in the coming months and how will it affect consumption habits? What is the resilience of states and global financial systems and how tested will they be? To take a precautionary position and reduce costs or will this generalized attitude generate a crisis and be responsible for continuing as if nothing serious were going on before us !?
We have a kind of greed in us after acceleration and running, we run crazy after marginal increases and getting better has become our obsession. We have been forgetting for some time that every progress needs time, momentum, preparation. We skip the heating and go straight to performance for a while…
Maybe it’s time for re-evaluation, introspection, maybe unpredictability tells us to widen our nostrils, sharpen our ears and think about the next step. How much inefficiency did I embed in the mad chase, but how much lack of meaning or value did I accumulate in such a hurry !? It is not easy to slow down, because you consume effort in braking, but it is no longer time to throw forward accelerating after the comma at each rotation. I don’t treat it as a divine sign, but the pandemic may tell us to go back and ask ourselves, no matter how difficult that may be.
I will start with more analysis in next year’s planning, aware that we will overcome the crisis situation, without knowing when and how difficult it will be, I will focus on the value that the business I run brings to its customers, employees and last but not least to society. I will think of solutions to improve this value and I will not spend time trying to guess what is to come and when. I will correct the known mistakes and I will listen more to find the unknown ones as well. I will cut the postponements and expectations and I will use the peace and insecurity of others to complete projects… hard to swallow.
It is impossible not to have each of you a certain thing, a development, a change, a professional decision that you postpone for years, dizzy by the whirlwind of information, speed and justifications. You cannot be unaware that the work must be done, the decision must be made, the change must be initiated! It’s that moment! It could be the way to respond to the blow of this virus. Let’s come out stronger than we came in, more prepared and more authentic. Our products and services to bring more value, our efficiency to be higher, people, in general, cleaner. I’m not saying that this would make the crisis go faster or easier, I’m just saying that we would be more resilient, that we would leave behind the disorder generated by the desperate flight by percentages.
It may be difficult at the end of this year, as it may be difficult at the beginning of the next… Things will inevitably slow down due to the unpredictability, the movements of some will be brilliant, but of many filled with nonsense. A good time to clean, to say things by name, to measure and adjust the value of our products, services, actions!
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