Harvard Business Review. 2015. Thirty years ago, no less a business guru than Peter Drucker weighed in, skewering short-termism in a Wall Street Journal editorial.
“Everyone who has worked with American management can testify that the need to satisfy the pension fund manager’s quest for higher earnings next quarter, together with the panicky fear of the raider, constantly pushes top managements toward decisions they know to be costly, if not suicidal, mistakes,” he wrote.
The Atlantic. 2016. There was a time, half a century ago, when what was good for many American corporations tended to also be good for America. Companies invested in their workers and new technologies, and as a result, they prospered and their employees did too.
Now, a growing group of business leaders is worried that companies are too concerned with short-term profits, focused only on making money for shareholders. As a result, they’re not investing in their workers, in research, or in technology—short-term costs that would reduce profits temporarily. And this, the business leaders say, may be creating long-term problems for the nation.
September 2022. Many of the problems we face today, from recent global recessions to climate change, can be traced back to short term thinking. This week, host Elisa is joined by Ari Wallach, futurist and author of Longpath: Becoming the Great Ancestors our Future Needs.
Ari acutely notes that we are at a significant turning point in history, one when bold change is needed to lay the groundwork for future generations. Yet, many Americans remain distracted by division and focused on the here and now.
How do we compare to other nations that might be taking a longer term view of themselves? And how can we rethink our political, corporate, and education systems to better adapt to, and take leadership in, establishing the innovations to come?
Facing rapid change—and even unprecedented upheaval—large and small businesses alike must race against time to innovate and adjust their strategies, business models, organizational systems, and cultures.
While some organizations struggle with rapid transformation, many are able to evolve quickly because leaders have built strategic agility into the organization’s DNA. In this live online program, you’ll learn how to become a more strategically agile leader who can help your organization compete and succeed in uncertain times.
Robert Strange McNamara (June 9, 1916 – July 6, 2009) was an American business executive and the eighth United States Secretary of Defense, serving from 1961 to 1968 under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson.
He remains the longest serving Secretary of Defense, having remained in office over seven years. He played a major role in promoting the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War. McNamara was responsible for the institution of systems analysis in public policy, which developed into the discipline known today as policy analysis.
In Germany, proxies are used for contingency planning, especially general proxies (Generalvollmachten) and precautionary proxies (Vorsorgevollmachten).
The general proxy entitles the authorised representative to take decisions for the principal in a large number of cases. The precautionary proxy focuses on decisions which have to be taken if the principal is no longer able to take care of his financial or personal matters, e.g. due to an illness.
In the middle of an active, busy (working) life, many families and business owners are reluctant to even consider the possibility of an accident or illness. As a result, contingency planning tends to be neglected. When something does happen, it often turns out there is no general power of attorney or enduring power of attorney for care or healthcare in place, and nobody thought of a living will or final will.
Proactive contingency planning helps to ensure that your family or family-owned business has legal capacity at all times. Our Private Clients experts help you draw up an emergency planning checklist that covers all the key legal and financial aspects.
If a partner or shareholder is incapacitated for an extended period, it could paralyse the entire company, depending on the provisions in the articles of association. Accordingly, (managing) partners or shareholders should draw up a contingency plan that addresses the following questions, in addition to their personal affairs.
Forbes. 2021. Life and work can at times prove to be exceedingly difficult, as the past year plus has shown, and we can all be forgiven if, in our current circumstances, we look not towards the future but the next moment of relief.
All the platitudes about tough times making for tough people are well and good, but they’re easier to offer from the outside rather than during a trying period. Let’s face it, this period of uncertainty is seemingly ever-ending. In these circumstances, it’s easy to see how people can make decisions aimed at the short-term amelioration of their problems that might work against their long-term interests.
New York Times. 2015. From Wall Street to Washington and in the towers of academia, people are buzzing about what some say is the pernicious focus in corporate America on short-term profits.
To understand the debate, it helps to understand the various forces that contribute to the pressures on companies to focus on short-term financial results. Those pressures are not just a product of one bad actor. It turns out that nearly everyone in the investment world plays a role in creating the challenges companies face in setting their sights on the far horizon.
A comment on YouTube:
“I served 6 years, USN as an MT (Missile Technician, C3 Poseidon missile system) aboard boomers in the mid 80’s. We were responsible for every system (from flight control equipment, hydraulics, heating/cooling systems, every aspect from loading to close out) and I remember every time we drilled for launch how much weight everyone carried knowing what it meant if it were an actual launch.
Knowing exactly what would come after, and knowing what the world would be like if we were to actually make it home. We all knew from extensive training exactly what these weapons would do, exactly how it performed when deployed from launch to detonation and the result, and I promise you it’s scarier than what you could possibly imagine.
I also know that it’s a necessary weapon and I pray deterrence will still be enough to prevent an attack on US soil. You cannot put this genie back in the bottle. Contrary to movies and what most believe, there is no detonation button to blow it up in space. When it launches it will reach its targets with precision, and it will destroy everything in it path and would only take our sailors minutes to launch every one of them. Let’s pray we never have to. There’s no do overs.”