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Will Spring Showers Bring Economic Recovery?

 

Spring has arrived, and with this month’s notes, we are celebrating the first anniversary of our blog, Blackman Kallick Strategy Insights. We hope you’ve found the blog to be helpful and thought-provoking.

Whether it’s the flowers blooming or the fact that the Dow seems to have leveled off, people are starting to sound more hopeful about the beginnings of a recovery. While hope can provide a sense of relief, it is critical to keep your eye on the ball and reinforce the good habits that have led you to this point. We are still in rough waters, and the recession, if it has in fact reached its bottom, will have a significant “tail” to it. It’s unlikely that the return to “normal” will be quick. In fact, once normalcy is achieved, it might look quite different than the “normal” we knew prior to the recession.

This month we have included a number of notes in the blog, which we hope will help prepare you for both the good and trying times ahead.

Talk the Talk.

Whether it’s restructuring your company, laying people off or announcing a significant change(s) for your organization, there’s a right way to go about the discussion. “Difficult Dialogues: Tips for Those Tough Talks” provides highlights of a program designed by Jascula/Terman and Associates to help you through these conversations.

Recession Begets Succession?

Always critical, succession planning has been on people’s minds more than ever before. We know this not only from conversations with clients, but also from the Family Advisor survey we co-administered with the Family Firm Institute (watch this space for a report) and Barry’s recent interview with the Chicago Tribune on the subject. The article “Business Succession Is Not a Single Event, Planning Starts Now” lays out some of the issues raised in the interview.

Develop Leaders, Not Managers.

David attended one of the centennial events for Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management earlier in the year and provided some thoughts on the comments of Jim Skinner and Dipak Jain in “It’s not what you know—it’s what you do about what you know.”

Both Skinner and Jain spoke about the importance of placing people in the right positions and allowing them to make decisions and changes as needed. In the April 20 issue of the “Reading for Leading,” newsletter, Dan Mulhern reinforced the notion that you can lead from anywhere, with or without formal authority. He went on to note that the best organizations are those that cultivate everyday leadership—everyday people who lead every day. Mulhern stressed that this leadership, as well as the efforts of the overall leader, should be focused not on internal matters, but on better serving your constituents including clients, customers, vendors, taxpayers and even your children.

We agree that empowering your employees to make decisions and take the lead to do what is “right” is one of the key elements of successful enterprises.

What do you think?

2000 Years of Excellence.

As you strive to move your organization forward, we leave you with this thought from Aristotle:

“With regard to excellence, it is not enough to know, but we must try to have and use it.”

BlackmanKallickStrategyInsights.com

Sincerely,

Barry S. Cain, former Managing Director, Strategic Services
David Spitulnik, former Director, Strategic Services
Suzanne Lane, Senior Manager, Strategic Services
 

This publication is part of Blackman Kallick’s marketing of professional services, and is not written tax advice directed at the specific facts and circumstances of any person and/or entity. Contents of this publication are of a general nature, and you should not act on this information without obtaining professional advice from your business advisor that is appropriately tailored to your individual needs and circumstances. This written advice is not intended or written to be used, and cannot be used by any taxpayer, for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed under the Internal Revenue Code.