The Future Can Be Planned

Written by Larry Fehd, CEO & Founder / HPS

In 1996 Ron Brown was the Commerce Secretary for the United States. He took a group of thirty executives on a business development mission to Bosnia. The executives were Chief Executive Officers and Presidents of medium to large corporations. The plane they were in crashed and all people on board were killed. How did the companies react when they got the news? Did they have a plan in place to take the company forward? If they had succession plans in place none would have had trouble picking up the pieces. In 1994 the largest groups of Americans ever were in their mid-30s. Almost ten years later the same group is in their mid-40s. When the economy regains its footing, a critical key to competitive success is retention of high caliber employees. How will companies retain their “right” employees? Succession plans help plan for disruptions and even disasters. (more…)

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Avoiding Flavor-of-the-Month Syndrome

Written by Larry Fehd, CEO & Founder / HPS

There’s a common phrase that seems appropriate in setting the stage for this article, which is “good intentions; bad results.”

Despite our best efforts, many well-intentioned initiatives often become flavors of the month. Perhaps at some point in your career you, too, were convinced that a particular initiative would not become the latest flavor of the month. Unfortunately, it did. Fortunately, while we cannot change the past, we can learn from it and do things differently in the future. (more…)

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