Vision of fools

Jack Welch once said, “Willingness to change is strength, even if it means plunging part of the company into total confusion for a while”.

One afternoon, I attended an event of an association actively involved in tourism development in the country and had the wonderful opportunity to chat with some key players in the business. The comments I received made me feel a bit awkward as to their impressions of the company I represented so I had to dodge my way around the conversation. I had to explain that it is not within my core competency to do marketing for my company since we have, for the longest time nestled on our laurels hoping against hope that the present market share (or rather the past market share) we enjoyed would remain constant and undiminished.

It would have been easier I guess to point fingers at those who opposed my earlier preposition that our dependency on a particular market will lead to our demise but I chose to be careful on the choices of words I had to deliver, almost admitting fault altogether to what has transpired. It is a fact that indeed, one’s inability to affect change means that one is as much at fault as those really at fault.

I must admit that for quite some time, I have allowed mistakes to be made to effectively prove my points. I do admit that up to the present day, random thoughts of apathy has been allowed within our non-corporate environment simply because it is the prevailing culture at the moment.
But how could one fool such as I ever embark on a crusade of realizing a vision, if the direction is not even clear?

I was advised by a dear friend recently that I should start to think about my survival and that was all that mattered. I guess that it was on the premise that everyone else does… to get by, to survive, to hang on, to build tolerance, to endure, and so on and so forth.

My boss on the other hand on one on one conversation would rather put me up on a challenge and arouse me on thoughts of greatness and the future greatness of this company, although much of it doesn’t hold true when everyone else is around. I guess that the premise there is that he has to motivate a lot of us and therefore he does not want to take the risk of alienating the other executives.

On my part, I have been steadfast about what is real and what is not. What is probable and what is not. In the case of this company, eventually, the demise of the market will dictate the outcome of its leadership and the perhaps the revision of its vision.

I have no problems with taking risks, as Sam Zell was quoted; “The reality is that I need to be challenged and interested, as long as the risk and reward is in line”. The same holds true for many of the people I work with, but I guess that with the recent changes in the organization as well as the prevailing uncertainty of the structure, most would rather concentrate on survival.

Yesterday, the marketing team had an update meeting so that we can fast track the deadlines and the things needed to be done. With finality, I stressed the urgency to push through with the plans we’ve previously agreed upon but has not yet implemented… the new home page, the membership card system, the contents of the homepage, etc, etc… including the meeting with important people and associations in the industry.

I honestly think that the risks should remain calculated and therefore the strategies well planned. To be aggressive at this point would mean that we put the livelihood of our shareholders mostly our employees at risk and I am not up to that. If I had the “core competency” to get us out of this crisis, then perhaps “aggressive” would be my middle name but then again, I’d just keep my present middle name, “stressed”.