Is unbridled
optimism, in business and in politics, a good thing? Or is it a recipe for
ultimate failure?
Remember Tony
Blair? When he was campaigning for his party in the 1997 UK elections,
his campaign theme tune was a pop song called “Things can only get better”
For a while the
newly elected Prime Minister Blair made the song look prophetic. Then the Blair
government started to make mistakes, the world changed, and eventually his
party lost power.
Barak Obama was
elected four years ago on a wave of “Yes we can!” optimism. Then circumstances,
recession and political realities got in the way, and his administration ran
into difficulty in achieving their goals, both domestically and on the world
stage. His re-election against the odds will most likely not improve his
chances of real achievement, and certainly he has had to tone-down the “yes we
can” optimism of 2008.
The truth is that
things can get better, and they can also get worse. Sometimes people or
politicians can tip the balance one way or another, but often the force of
circumstances can’t be resisted.
It seems to me
that any politician who says, in effect, “Vote for me and I’ll make your dreams
come true” simply has to be heard with a healthy dose of scepticism. He or she
must surely know the limits on what they can do, and the power of external
events. But one of the problems of democracy is that getting elected, and
running a nation-state well, are really two different kinds of task, and need
completely different skills. The truth about politicians is that they are
usually much better at getting elected than at actually making dreams come
true.
It’s different
running a business. Of course you need the leadership skills to get a group of
people working together, the technical skills to be effective in a particular
industry, the communication skills to deal effectively with customers and
shareholders, and so on, and on! But you don’t have to get elected!
No-one ever said
that running a business was easy. In fact it isn’t, and the demands on business
leaders are immense. But one advantage they have over political leaders is that
they can be honest when they don’t know something. If they don’t know what
their industry’s economic position is going to be in a year’s time, they can
say so. If they see a recession coming they can make plans to cope with it, and
explain why. If they are facing strong competition they can analyse it, work
out a competitive strategy, and implement their plans without having to tell
half truths (at best!) to an electorate in order to hang on to power.
Perhaps their most
important advantage over politicians is that they never have to pretend that
“things can only get better”. In fact the kind of optimistic thinking that the
song title embodies would be positively dangerous for the leader of any
business. I am not suggesting that businessmen have to be pessimistic all the
time; they would find it hard to inspire their staff if they were always
downbeat. What I am advocating is “rational optimism”.
It’s the kind of
attitude that says; “It’s tough out there, and getting tougher. Competition is
getting stronger, and our market positions are under pressure. So if we are
going to stay profitable, we are going to have to change, and this is what I
think we have to do.”
So what do
rational optimists say about the world economy today? Actually they say that
it’s tough, competition is getting stronger, and we are going to have to change
the way we do things!
And what is the
key area of change that all companies need to focus on? It’s in their people.
Their productivity has to grow, so that their cost of operations falls. Their
skills have to change as technology changes. Their sales forces have to get
into new markets with new products. All of this means that investing and
re-investing in skills has to be as important in business planning as investing
in new equipment and technology.
That’s where we
can help. Kursus Inggris Jakarta We have invested in the best available technology, and in our teachers’
skills, so that our clients can invest with confidence in their people’s
language skills. Give us a call to find out how we can help you.
