The Turbulent 2000's - Reality Check Time
The last three years of the roaring '90's left us feeling like superheros on a planet inhabited by bad guys that were neither very strong or very aggressive. The truth was we could fall off the proverbial turnip truck and land on a customer. Selling and fiscal growth management were not skills to be mastered but rather assumed outcomes of opening the front door. The turn of the millennium clock did not spell the disaster of world computer technology as some predicted; instead it chimed for the dotcom debacle of the last eighteen months.

Year 2001 has left many CEO's wondering where their customers went and the answer they are most often hearing is that without an economy spurred by technology, the customer base has dried up. While it is easy to see the relevancy in hard currency that the dotcom community contributed to the economy, this slowdown bears closer attention by CEO's. The fast paced '90's offered up two significant challenges that only now are beginning to surface. First, there was a lack of executive talent so we hired warm bodies at exorbitant salaries and in some cases over generous bonus plans; secondly, we forgot all about the need for strategy and planning in favor of speed and change agents.

CEO's today need to dig deeper if they are to survive the Turbulent 2000's. We need to take the best of what we have learned about supporting technology and formulate our strategic plans once again around the long term PROFITABLE use of information. We need to look closely at our executive teams and once again ensure that they have the talent AND desire to plan, predict and deliver on organizational strategy.

The customers are out there, does your team know how to find them? The clock is ticking...

Ed Jenks is the CEO of The JENKS Group; a California based consulting firm that specializes in strategic planning and strategic plan management. He can be reached at www.thejenksgroup.com

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