Movement is not progress

The market is in a weird place right now, a lot of companies are making record profits, but at the same time every other company seems to think bankruptcy is around the corner. Both of these camps seem to use the same general strategy: cut costs and maximize profits. What mainly comes down to: getting more money. A lot of people would argue that that’s the core of every business out there. The less you spend and the more that comes in, the better the company is doing. A CFO would definitely like that part, but I would argue that this is not strategy. It’s always easier to run a company when you have more money. But running a company is not improving a company. A dog chasing a car You probably know the metaphor of a dog chasing a passing car. It runs after it, barking and growling, but once it catches the car, it has no idea what to do with it.That to me is what I often feel about bottom-line optimisation exercises. The company is not doing well, or we want to do better than we are…