LEADERSHIP: INVESTING AND RESOURCING WISELY
Published: 2010-04-15 please add a comment below
This Potshot was prompted by:
"How Companies Spend Their Money: A McKinsey Global Survey"
2007 McKinsey Survey on resource allocation
URL: http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/article_abstract.aspx?ar=2019&l2=21&l3=114&srid=110
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“Most of business is about placing bets – allocating resources – and making them pay off.” So begins the McKinsey report of its 2007 global survey on resource allocation. But, the good news is balanced by bad. Taking account of sound financial criteria, proven business performance and potential for value creation are reported as leading to good investment outcomes. However, excessive optimism, risk aversion and behind-the-scenes lobbying can darken the picture. Real life is truly real – and at times grubby.
Think about decisions in your own business! How many are rational and objective: applying the right criteria, ensuring all relevant views are heard, and ensuring key stakeholders can support what’s decided – and then make things work on the ground? Equally, how many decisions are irrational or subjective: hijacked by vested interests (of building or protecting a patch) or subverted by claims that go unchallenged? Even when decisions are yours alone, are you clear-headed and sensible – or sometimes pushing a private agenda?
We often take the easy road: acting from self-interest rather than what’s best.
Achieving sensible resourcing decisions is a leader’s daily challenge: to rebuild this machine now or wait and replace it later. To shift staff to a new project or leave them where they are. And, I’ve included such decisions as part of my V|E|C|T|O|R Leadership® framework (developed in my work with leaders across a wide range of industries and businesses). Decisions such as “aligning resourcing and systems to support your goals” and “addressing gaps in skills and processes.” And, above all, “taking tough decisions in relation to activities and people.” None easy, but all necessary.
Why not develop your own Leadership Action Plan – covering both the “hard” resourcing issues of investments and markets and the so-called “soft” ones of people and culture. Together they paint the full picture of your leadership priorities. Give it a go and in less than an hour, you can have a printable plan of personal leadership action commitments. Something to get on with (and email to colleagues) that takes account of all those resourcing and other decisions.
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Dr. Timothy Pascoe AM
PhD (Cambridge), MBA (Harvard), BE & BEc (Adelaide)
Creator, V|E|C|T|O|R Leadership®
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Categories for this Potshot:
McKinsey articles, Take tough decisions, Champion diversity, Align resourcing with goals, Address skill and process gaps,
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Address skill and process gaps
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