Focus on Today or Tomorrow?

Despite the distracting global economic woes and the sideshow in Washington and on Wall Street, most of the inquiries I am receiving are from business colleagues who are focusing on basic day to day challenges and the occasional merger or spin-out. Reduced staffing levels and desire to provide immediate value are focusing attention primarily on short and mid-term questions. I am not hearing as much long-term and that I think reflects the state of the economy. So what am I hearing and what isn't being asked?

On the short-term side the questions are:

• How do I cut costs without cutting people?


• Should I use furloughs or salary reductions?


• Should I assume I won't pay bonuses this year?


• Should I cut all at once and hope that it will be sufficient or should I engage in a pattern of small cuts that eventually becomes a way of doing business where I am regularly taking out the lowest performers?


• How can I reduce health care spending now?


• What is the right severance plan today and what are the optics?


• How do the reduced costs of housing and fuel allow me to relocate or lock in people that I need?


• What are the compliance impacts of the regulatory changes that are occurring?

On the mid-term side the questions are:

• Can we change our business model to provide services more efficiently?


• Can we afford an investment in technology today that will provide a quick return within 18 months?


• How can I quickly get more productivity out of a shrinking workforce?


• What is the right revenue per employee number and how does that effect my staffing needs and cost reduction plans?


• How can I keep people engaged in the right behaviors to drive productivity and performance?

From a small number of forward thinking organizations I am hearing questions about the long-term strategic shifts that the future will bring.

• What is our people strategy? Should we revamp our long-term thinking based on current realities. What is the future going to be like? Is this a fundamental restructuring of the business landscape such that we will no longer be in some businesses and therefore won't need the types of workers we employed previously?


• How does this economy impact our workforce planning scenarios? Should we assume that boomers will all defer retirement? What are the career implications for our younger mid-level talent? What are their prospects for promotion and career development? What is the risk of unexpected turnover as a result once the economy rebounds?


• Should we investment in systems changes today that will position us to operate with a different customer service model in the future?


• Should we be doing scenario planning for our business models and human capital needs much as we would for our financial and physical assets? Does scenario planning have any useful shelf life?

Given these unasked questions, can we afford to stay focused on the day-today demands of our jobs or does our viability depend more on our ability to address the needs of tomorrow?