For use September 26, 2001

 Future Shoes 
A Message to America's Executives
From America Itself

by Michael Finley

So here we are. Rubble filling my streets. Fires still smoldering under the pile.

People fretting. Families destroyed.

An economy sliding into recession. Legitimate issues of inventories and consumer wariness already in place before the attack occurred.

Everyone you know is slashing costs to keep the market off their back.

It's a mad rush, and you’d be crazy to sidestep it, right? In B-school, there's no alternative. Every atom of common financial sense tells you to flip the switch.

But you can't.

Sure, nothing is physically preventing you from pulling the plug on your employees. And you have your rationalization firmly in hand. Let your people go. Set 'em free, Maybe they can find cover out there in this terrified economy. Maybe you’re doing them a favor.

It will be a valuable lesson in character for some of them.

But you can’t. Because the law of the land isn't taught in B-school. It is not what every business person knows. It is not the law of the quarterly report. It's bigger than that.

You can’t do it because you’re an American, and selling America off at this particular moment means the bad guys won.

It means the terrorists terrorized us.

Downsizing ... is ... surrender.

We are all scared. It is understandable if leaders feel the chill of fear creeping up their spines as well.

You can be scared. But you can’t act scared.

Cutting and running right now is little better than being a profiteer, because you have done the same essential thing. You chose private advantage over the needs of the nation. During a moment of crisis when my very survival is at stake.

Could it be that people are out there right now, keeping a tally of who ran for cover, and who stayed to fight? Could it be that this tally might someday be your organization's greatest disgrace? Could it be that, good intentions to the contrary -- you only acted to save the company -- you became a company no one would ever think of the same way again?

You want to run. But you can’t. You have to stay and fight. And right now, staying and fighting means continuing as if no attack had occurred. As if the mood on the street were confident and strong, and not edgy with fear. As if prospects for success are bright as the sun, even though we still squint through the dust and smoke of our ruins.

How many years of prosperity have I given you? How many hours of peace and pleasure? How many moments of freedom that no other country would allow?

You’re a business person. Well, I'm a business person, too, and all these years I've been running a tab on you. And it's time to take out your checkbook and pay.

You lack faith in consumers, in  employees? Look at them. Look at the survivors. Read the polls. Read the stock averages. Average Americans are not pulling out of the market. They are staying in, with something as important to them as your bottom line is to you -- their savings, their future. They have put all their chips on winning this war.

They stand ready to buy, and work, and buy, and work. Remember that? It's called capitalism, and right now it looks pretty damn good.

Not everyone will be able to hold onto every employee. Not every company will able to launch growth initiatives. Not every company will have the capability to do much but hold the line, to stay in the game.

You say you’re American. Now you must prove it.

Be creative. Divide jobs up. Go to a four day week. If you must cut back, cut back a bit on all. Share some of that big salary you earn, spread it around a bit. But hold on to your people. That's what leaders do.

Hold on tight. Do business though your heart is breaking, and your knees are trembling, and the phone is ringing off the hook.

You've called yourself a leader all these years. Now it's time to really lead.

This is your hour.  

And I'm watching you.

Future Shoes
_{COPYRIGHT (c) 2001
by MICHAEL FINLEY}

Mike is available to write for your publication or organization right now. Call him at 651-644-4540. Or e-mail him.

Comments on the site