We are beginning to realize that America’s economic malaise
will not be solved by the November election. In a year, indecisive
business managers across the land will have seen the enemy, and it will have been them. Perhaps then, the boards, stockholders and staffs of these organizations
will stop looking to Washington for the certainty and leadership that must come from within their own organizations.
The real uncertainty now is whether business leaders,
especially manufacturing leaders, will get tired of their indecision and decide
to lead.
Bank loans to businesses grew 10 percent last year and the
estimate of available cash is over one trillion. But much of the loan growth
comes from lines of credit, not traditional loans; and instead of using these
lines of credit to build competitive advantage, to expand or develop production
– to hire people – many manufacturers continue to wait.
Here in Illinois, uncertainty has been an especially
reasonable explanation for indecision, because our state has been business-unfriendly
for many years. Boards of directors here may be more easily persuaded that indecision
is the right decision. You can bet that for many manufacturers, the marketing
plan for growth is centrally driven not by the rare marketing opportunities
afforded by our times, but by the apparent prudence of total risk avoidance. For
them, it is not about addressing major marketing opportunities, it’s still
about operations tweaking.
What you can bank on in the year to come is that only a
few, true manufacturing leaders will cash in on the rare marketing
opportunities afforded by this market environment.
Business leadership researcher Jim Collins (author of Good
to Great, and his most recent work Great by Choice), speaks with authority on
this topic of mediocrity versus greatness. See last month’s edition of Inc. magazine for a remarkably in-depth interview by Bo Burlingham.
The interview reminds us that business leadership is damn
difficult, that it combines creativity and discipline, and it is a worrisome
endeavor for anyone who attempts it. Nevertheless, good companies become great
not because they are luckier, but because their leaders determine the right
things to worry about, and so, they make better choices.
The most successful companies will be guided by business leaders who continue to make bold decisions -- without deferral, without cloaking themselves in the
popular paralysis of uncertainty.
“It’s easy to spend a lot of energy on things that really
don’t make a difference,” Collins concludes in the Inc. article. “Yes, you need
to pay attention to how your world is changing. But it can also lead to
confusion. There is a great simplifying power being able to say, ‘We need to
start first with whatever problem we have.’ ”
Behind the biggest marketing problems are the biggest
marketing opportunities. Manufacturing leaders who focus on such opportunities will
be the heroes of America’s economic recovery.
jb
www.centrifuge-now.com
