Financial Crisis - an update

Before, during and now, after the initial developments in this financial crisis – business has gone on as it has in the past… a crucial element seems to have been overlooked… and that is necessary Change Management within these organisations… we need to change the way they think, otherwise we are just marking time until it all happens again in the USA or somewhere else in the Global community.

The Commercial World as always is being driven by improved margins, from the incredible daily profits experienced on Platforms, to productive companies dealing in providing end-user products and services – they are at least creating something that is tangible – down to Mr.& Mrs America being paid less than 5-10% per year (which is taxable) on their hard earned dollars… the difference between the rich and the poor is widening exponentially.

To me it seems that the basic premise of how these organisations function has not been seen as important… since the Glass-Steagall Act was revoked… we have been heading for this. The basic way these organisations operate has not changed… (although controls have and are being introduced) we still see organisations basically owned and controlled by various Governments around the world, still paying bonuses… outside of normal guidelines.. and these Governments seems to have no control, they are willing to use.

Meanwhile main street in the USA has to pay for all of this… it is something they do not understand… and like the stages of grief…. sure denial is one of them, however the other stages of grief need to be considered, one of them being anger… so I am not sure we have got to denial as yet, in the stages of grief; for their less than enviable debt burden, not of their making, why they are in debt, and most likely some generations to come will be…..

The reaction from Governments world wide has been lets run around and put out fires… this can be related to a Doctor treating the symptoms and not the cause… we are not out of the woods yet… it will take whole generations to change attitudes… if it is even possible, I do not see it as even possible until the basic premise of focus on short term reporting cycles, and the payment of unrealistic bonuses, changes within organisations – when we were in the middle of the crash we saw CEO’s and Senior people being given Golden parachutes basically being paid for their lack of focus, as they were obviously not concentrating on minding their businesses.

To date for the American people the only recourse for severe disappointment has been by the ballot box… I am not sure this will be their only recourse in the future.This is a significant system failure, and the underlying root cause has still not been addressed.

Change the way that the people that run these organisations, and then we are on a path to stable financial infrastructure… don’t and it is going to happen all over again.