ency, not herky-jerky short-term moves for all the wrong reasons.

2. Take care of your foundation

We never purchase a house based on the beauty and construction of the foundation. In fact, we seldom look in the crawl space under the house while making a purchase decision. What typically drives us to buy is the attractive appointments, special features and pizzazz of what sits on the foundation. Ever living in a house with a faulty foundation? All the features and pizzazz are no longer important if the house is about to fall.

Imagine, you have created something that is state of the art. The envy of the industry. You spared no expense and focused on every detail. Everyone says It’s a can’t miss smash success! Everyone applauds your launch, customers wishing they could be the first to use your product, and you are ready to make money by the vault-load. What could go wrong?

Myopic Madness is what could go wrong. Your inability to see out in front of you causes you to crash into an avoidable obstacle and your project becomes the poster child for failure, in fact they make a movie about it and everyone enjoys watching your failure unfold in real time. This is the story if the Titanic.

But it could be the story (up to the movie part) of many business ventures that failed to look far enough into the future. Myopia is commonly known as near-sightedness or the inability to see clearly into the distance. American business has never been so myopic in its vision as it is today and the madness it creates is frustrating managers across the country.

Myopic Madness is creating work atmospheres that are so short-term bottom line focused, managers are no longer properly training newly-hired employees, are employing bad work practices in order to boost end of the month numbers to make a report look healthier than it really is, and exploring offshore options to save money while ignoring the long term effects of all of these practices.

Want to stop the Madness?

1. Look to the Future

Leaders need to be able to see the future today and drive the organization toward that destination. We would never ignore a map, get on a highway and ride it until it stops and say this is the destination we wanted for our vacation all along! So why do we do this with our businesses? Kodak ignored the future of digital photography and finally announced film would not be a profit center for their organization, all the while scrambling how to find a share of the new age of photography. Kodak without film profits? Invest the time, energy and resources looking where you are going, instead of focusing how to get one more order out by the end of the month. Success takes consistency and persistency, not herky-jerky short-term moves for all the wrong reasons.

2. Take care of your foundation

We never purchase a house based on the beauty and construction of the foundation. In fact, we seldom look in the crawl space under the house while making a purchase decision. What typically drives us to buy is the attractive appointments, special features and pizzazz of what sits on the foundation. Ever living in a house with a faulty foundation? All the features and pizzazz are no longer important if the house is about to fall.

E

they make a movie about it and everyone enjoys watching your failure unfold in real time. This is the story if the Titanic.

But it could be the story (up to the movie part) of many business ventures that failed to look far enough into the future. Myopia is commonly known as near-sightedness or the inability to see clearly into the distance. American business has never been so myopic in its vision as it is today and the madness it creates is frustrating managers across the country.

Myopic Madness is creating work atmospheres that are so short-term bottom line focused, managers are no longer properly training newly-hired employees, are employing bad work practices in order to boost end of the month numbers to make a report look healthier than it really is, and exploring offshore options to save money while ignoring the long term effects of all of these practices.

Want to stop the Madness?

1. Look to the Future

Leaders need to be able to see the future today and drive the organization toward that destination. We would never ignore a map, get on a highway and ride it until it stops and say this is the destination we wanted for our vacation all along! So why do we do this with our businesses? Kodak ignored the future of digital photography and finally announced film would not be a profit center for their organization, all the while scrambling how to find a share of the new age of photography. Kodak without film profits? Invest the time, energy and resources looking where you are going, instead of focusing how to get one more order out by the end of the month. Success takes consistency and persistency, not herky-jerky short-term moves for all the wrong reasons.

2. Take care of your foundation

We never purchase a house based on the beauty and construction of the foundation. In fact, we seldom look in the crawl space under the house while making a purchase decision. What typically drives us to buy is the attractive appointments, special features and pizzazz of what sits on the foundation. Ever living in a house with a faulty foundation? All the features and pizzazz are no longer important if the house is about to fall.

so short-term bottom line focused, managers are no longer properly training newly-hired employees, are employing bad work practices in order to boost end of the month numbers to make a report look healthier than it really is, and exploring offshore options to save money while ignoring the long term effects of all of these practices.

Want to stop the Madness?

1. Look to the Future

Leaders need to be able to see the future today and drive the organization toward that destination. We would never ignore a map, get on a highway and ride it until it stops and say this is the destination we wanted for our vacation all along! So why do we do this with our businesses? Kodak ignored the future of digital photography and finally announced film would not be a profit center for their organization, all the while scrambling how to find a share of the new age of photography. Kodak without film profits? Invest the time, energy and resources looking where you are going, instead of focusing how to get one more order out by the end of the month. Success takes consistency and persistency, not herky-jerky short-term moves for all the wrong reasons.

2. Take care of your foundation

We never purchase a house based on the beauty and construction of the foundation. In fact, we seldom look in the crawl space under the house while making a purchase decision. What typically drives us to buy is the attractive appointments, special features and pizzazz of what sits on the foundation. Ever living in a house with a faulty foundation? All the features and pizzazz are no longer important if the house is about to fall.

d ride it until it stops and say this is the destination we wanted for our vacation all along! So why do we do this with our businesses? Kodak ignored the future of digital photography and finally announced film would not be a profit center for their organization, all the while scrambling how to find a share of the new age of photography. Kodak without film profits? Invest the time, energy and resources looking where you are going, instead of focusing how to get one more order out by the end of the month. Success takes consistency and persistency, not herky-jerky short-term moves for all the wrong reasons.

2. Take care of your foundation

We never purchase a house based on the beauty and construction of the foundation. In fact, we seldom look in the crawl space under the house while making a purchase decision. What typically drives us to buy is the attractive appointments, special features and pizzazz of what sits on the foundation. Ever living in a house with a faulty foundation? All the features and pizzazz are no longer important if the house is about to fall.

ency, not herky-jerky short-term moves for all the wrong reasons.

2. Take care of your foundation

We never purchase a house based on the beauty and construction of the foundation. In fact, we seldom look in the crawl space under the house while making a purchase decision. What typically drives us to buy is the attractive appointments, special features and pizzazz of what sits on the foundation. Ever living in a house with a faulty foundation? All the features and pizzazz are no longer important if the house is about to fall.

Employees are the foundation of every organization and they are getting the same treatment as a new home buyer treats the foundation of their home: Expected to be sturdy, taken for granted and assume it needs no maintenance or attention until it starts to crack.

It’s time for a foundation inspection in your business. Having high turnover? Quality struggles? Customer complaints? Look at shoring up your foundation. Build in some reasons for loyalty. Take a renewed interest in the future of your organization by focusing on what it is resting on – the quality of how you are earning your employee commitment.

3. Avoid the Fads that Erode your Brand

I have a great idea! Music these days is filled with four letter words to spice up interest in the target market of new generation, and you can hear extremely foul language at full volume blaring and thumping from open car windows as they play their audibly assaulting selections, so why not follow the fad and spice up your ads with socially inappropriate words?

Consider the fad chasers. Cadillac now makes a small car that is more affordable for the masses. (So much for the elite brand, they are now just another division of GM.) Banks approve credit card applications as long as the applicant is breathing (and the write-offs are significant.) Anybody notice how much a share of Berkshire Hathaway still is? Here is the exception. Warren Buffet defines fads, he doesn’t follow them and his success is off the charts.

Your brand is something you should never sacrifice in the pursuit of short-term profits. If you make the biggest burger – then make the biggest burger and be proud. If you make an elite car, then only make an elite car! If you want to demonstrate strength as a company then don’t sacrifice your brand identity to make a few extra dollars this quarter.

Your short-term vision may have you heading straight for an iceberg.