What do you do when you are faced with an economic mess and a downturn in receipts? I've seen this question numerous times lately with a wide variety of answers. The other day though, I received one of the many ezines I subscribe to and found an extensive list of actions this particular person was taking to offset the decrease in his business income. This person is a very accomplished and successful businessman which is why I was so surprised by his list of actions. His first two actions were to eliminate his own salary and cut expenses. Sounds right. His third action was to cut staff. After that he had a bunch of actions that are normal business process such as predicting cash flow and talking to customers. But hold on there, the third action was to cut staff? Before doing all the other analysis?

These days, most companies are looking for ways to save money, and downsizing is one obvious option. The magic number for layoffs seems to be about 10 percent; companies feel they can cut this number of staff as a quick way to boost profitability. But downsizing has a lot of risks: people get demotivated, they become anxious, and some will even jump ship thinking another organization is more secure. On top of this, companies may find themselves with too little talent to bring in new revenue and provide the level of service needed to retain existing clients.

Who among us who studies leadership and management has not used, or at least heard the label "Machiavellian Management?" The term is a mantra for a certain kind of management style, one where the ends, glory and honor, justify the means. Machiavelli's work is more than that though. His best known work, The Prince, which he published in 1513 is actually a discourse on international political affairs of the time. Machiavelli is often listed as one of the forefathers of management theory and no beginning course on the subject would be complete without commenting on his writing. So, how does his work on political science apply to management and leadership theory?
Read the entire review.

Hire Bob to help your leaders excel.

Just fill out this form

PLAN - LEAD - EXCEL