It’s amazing how many companies are going thru a lack of Leadership at this critical time. GM and Chrysler are in serious trouble because they did not have strong leadership with vision. Ford isn’t out of the woods yet themselves but they at least made the tough decision to put themselves in a position where they didn’t need Government loans to keep them afloat.
Today the Chicago Sun-Times joined it’s competitor to announce that they too were headed to bankruptcy. Countless people have warned the Newspapers they had better wake up to the new forms of competition otherwise they were in serious trouble. Just last month the Rocky Mountain News of Denver, CO shut it’s doors after being in business for over 130 years! Why did these large companies who have been around for a long time end up in this situation? A lack of leadership and poor decision making is the main reason!
In just about every industry there continues to be a lack of leadership and those that do not have it will clearly not survive. What allowed a company to be successful in the past may not work in the future, especially when you factor in our ever changing environment and world wide competition. Individuals make up companies and they must realize that what got them to be successful to date may not work in the future. Marshall Goldsmith wrote a great book entitled just that, ‘What Got You Here, Won’t Get You There‘ . If you get a chance to pick it up, it’s one of the best books I’ve ever read.
The good news is those who chose to use good vision and decision making will come out of this economy stronger and become the next leaders.
