Nov
16
A Sense of Urgency?
Filed Under Human Architecture, Leadership, Strategy Execution | Leave a Comment
I saw Steve Forbes Friday night and listened to a fairly compelling argument that our current financial crisis is a series of bad decisions. President elect Obama, you should talk to him. The rest of you should find what he has been writing over the past months because his knowledge and depth were wasted on my short-term memory.
Four things that did stick with me –
1) We need a policy of a strong dollar. This is not negotiable.
2) We need to help our domestic auto industry in ways that will help their sustainability. Simple question we all need to understand is why are GM and Ford phenomenally successful outside the US? Forbes made the point that if GM and Ford would close down their US operations they would be seen as world-class companies. Wow – something to think about and it has little to do with unions, although the unions need to get their workers to work more often. Ten percent absenteeism is obscene – if the UAW deals with that they will be seen as more relevant. The work needs to be made more interesting as well, which is on the leadership of GM, Ford and Chrysler.
3) Taxes cannot be raised in a crisis. This means that spending must be cut. This is combination of stopping dumb things like bailouts that don’t address root causes. It also means efficiency in government vs the current placebos. Cut non-entitlement budgets across the board including the Pentagon and hire consultants that know how to implement and advise - instead of the mass training houses. Also buy all managers in government agencies a copy of Kotter’s latest book. Fire all who whine or block instead of seeing the opportunity. Efficiencies will be found and the work will be more interesting.
4) Health care has to be addressed with efficient system wide solutions. Piece-meal solutions will not cut it which means expansion of existing programs won’t do. Forbes’ example was that of medical tourism – why is a flight to Singapore and surgery to have a knee replacement one-fourth the cost of doing it in the US? How can these hospitals offer first class results with infection rates that are nonexistent? Lasik surgery is another example – success rates are up and costs are substantially reduced from a decade ago. Why? Understand the answer and you will be looking at what efficient reform looks like.
Forbes says it is time for Obama to turn into a pragmatic politician to make sure he is there for 8 years. Steve has some good thoughts, take some time to understand them and encourage your government officials to understand them as well. I personally would like to keep a smart person in the White House and have them surrounded by smart people. I don’t want Steve as my President, but I would be impressed if he became a trusted advisor to Obama.
Read what Steve is writing at - http://search.forbes.com/search/colArchiveSearch?author=Forbes
Gary