Living for Today or …

I was listening to a discussion this morning on the relative merits of a family business versus a traditional modern company.  In this discussion it was assumed that within a family business that control would stay within the family, rather than bringing in professional management.  I recognise that this is only one dimension of the conversation but the point that interested me was the idea that in a family business one had to focus building for the long term future  and passing something stronger down to the next generation.  Obviously this is a very different emphasis from that which has lead us all into this banking crisis where everyone only focused on the next bonus.

I was watching a film yesterday in which one of the characters said “We (western businessmen) are only interested in the next quarter’s results, but the Japanese are looking to the next quarter of century.” *  Clearly, as human beings, we need to feed ourselves today; but the next rung up the evolutionary ladder has us focusing on securing tomorrow’s food as well.  It seems to me that today we have the balance wrong.  I hope that one of the corrections we see coming from this economic hiatus is that we get a better balance between harvesting today’s crops and planting tomorrow’s.  I have to say I am not holding my breath…

If you want to have the balance right, then you have to ensure that each day/week you are dedicating some of your time to planning and preparing for tomorrow rather than just getting through today’s tasks.  Take control of your diary today!

“Telling the future by looking at the past assumes that conditions remain constant. This is like driving a car by looking in the rear-view mirror.”

“The longer you wait for the future, the shorter it will be”   Loesje

 

* In the line of Fire

Here is a good blog on Strategy and Strategic Focus

This entry was posted on Monday, March 2nd, 2009 at 10:03 and is filed under Business Change, Hints, Tips & Techniques, Leadership, Personal Change, Values & Philosophy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.