I enjoyed the Olympics this year more than I remember enjoying them in the past. I don't know if it is the athletes, the curiosity of seeing China from another angle or something else that has been weighing on my mind this summer: Risk-Taking.
What is an acceptable level of risk today? Well, according to all the actions from the big guys on Wall Street, their is no ceiling. But for the rest of us now, reeling from reading our 401K statements, we wish for more moderation. Of course, many of our clients are suffering through this economy and consumers aren't spending much in the stores because every purchase suddenly looks like a gamble. So watching those athletes a few weeks ago was really refreshing (particularly now with the whole Palin/lipstick/economic hooplah). Every time those atheles compete, they are taking a huge risk: Will they win or will they fail? Will their bodies keep up or will an injury take them down?
But with all that, there is one point that is incredibly clear: There has been no question in the mind of these athletes who is accountable for their success or failure--they are. And that concept in itself is risky business. It's also called personal accountability and some would argue that is a concept that is losing ground in today's society. From a business perspective, the concept of personal accountability is losing ground to committee collaboration or in some cases, to no decision at all. In years where the economy is rough and corporate earnings in many sectors are skewed, many businesses react by pulling back, cutting cost and waiting it out. The thought seems to be It is safer not to do anything than to do something and be wrong.
We have heard too many times this summer from executives and managers the following statements: "everything is on hold indefinitely" or "the management team has not decided" or worse still, "no one seems to have a vision around here". Ouch. Now some of this I attribute to 2008 being an election year. The concept of "holding tight" and waiting to see what is going to happen seems to come around every presidential election and this year is no exception. We anticipate that, but there is a cost.
I remember back in 2000 when the economy started to slide dramatically, corporations cut their college recruiting programs to the bone as a cost cutting measure. Now in 2008, many businesses are just beginning to get their pipeline of entry level talent back on track while other companies are still struggling. Two years of cost cutting has created a seven to ten year critical shortage of talent that continues to impede growth for many.
So when I hear executives telling me that they don't see a future in their current employer because their leaders are not investing in any new technologies, product development or outside talent, I get concerned. Watching the Olympic athletes seem a fitting analogy, because they know they cannot afford to back down. If they are hurt or tired, they still have to train. Each and every one of them knows that to reach their goal, they have a very short timeline in which to do it and if they are going to go for it, the time is now.
At Recruiting Services Group, we have decided the same thing. We are signing a new lease, opening a new office in Virginia, bringing on a new executive to help us expand and creating a new advertising strategy. Is it risky? Maybe. But after fourteen years and three presidential elections, I feel pretty confident the need for talented people to run business isn't going to go away even if it is ignored for a while or put on the back burner. In competition, backing down is not an acceptable risk--it should not be in our business either.
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