IT'S TIME...

It's time for American businesses to fly again, both figuratively and literally.

It's time for American businesses to stop playing it safe and acting like they need a guarantee for success before they will take a prudent risk. (Of course, if they had a guarantee for success, then they would not be taking a risk. More on that in a moment.)

For the past six years, far too many American businesses have acted like they should be automatically rewarded for every initiative. In the late 1990s, many businesses pumped billions of dollars into innovation and new approaches to the marketplace. However, this was not risk taking because many of these businesses assumed that if they put the word "internet" anywhere in their business plan, they would automatically be rewarded handsomely. When that boondoggle fell apart, far too many businesses took the exact opposite approach: fire employees, eliminate investments in innovation, conserve cash and WAIT for the economy to turn around.

Folks, there is no magic wand for turning the economy around. It will happen only when businesses, from small to large, decide to stop waiting and to start taking chances again. Paraphrasing Franklin D. Roosevelt, the greatest risk we can take is to not take any risks.

Tom Brokaw did our country a great favor by writing about the greatest generation, the individuals who carried us through the depression, WWII and the post-war years. In the late 1940s and 1950s, Americans faced an uncertain international situation, they were coming off of terrible economic conditions, they experienced a housing boom like nothing ever seen in this country before and they had relatively new technologies in the form of televisions, automobiles and airplanes. Doesn't all of this sound eerily familiar to the America of today? But instead of being frozen into avoiding risks, the greatest generation stepped forward, they tried new things, they were charged up by the possibilities, not the guarantees. If we are going to be a great generation, if we are going to leave our mark on history, then we must take chances again. We must invest in innovation. We must find new ways to add more value to customers. We have to stop waiting for someone else to turn the economy around. So today decide what you can do to make your organization more successful and then take a risk and invest in doing it. It's time for us to make our mark as a generation.

Resource Recommendation: The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw.

Republishing Articles

Each month my e-newsletter gets republished in approximately 20 blogs, on-line publications, and internal publications for businesses, universities, and not-for-profit organizations. If you would like to republish all or part of my monthly articles, please send me an e-mail at dan@thecoughlincompany.com with "Republishing Article" in the subject heading. I will send you the article in a word document. All I ask is that you include my name as the author of the article and a short paragraph at the end of the article about me with a link to my website.

Take care and have a great month!

Dan Coughlin

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