Who says the value of the dollar doesn't matter?

The Bush administration and the Federal Reserve act as though the declining dollar is not a real issue. They keep reducing interest rates which has caused the dollar to reach all time lows.
Unfortunately, the declining dollar has had and continues to have a major impact on all Americans.

First of all it has contributed to the unprecedented rise of oil prices ($100 p;us) since the oil producing nations sell their output in dollars. So as the dollar declines OPEC raises prices, even though demand has declined and supply is about normal. This has caused a significant rise in the prices of everything and is causing high inflation.

Second, it has enabled countries, like Dubai and China, to purchase American companies and assets are bargain prices. In fact, you might say that they own the United States since they have enormous amounts of dollars and have a very favorable balance of trade.

Third, tourists from Europe, Mid East and Far East are able to come to the United States on special shopping tours to purchase products are bargain levels, while US citizens who wish to travel to these parts of the world can't afford it.

Of course the retort is that the United States exports increase. The porblem is that we really don't make much in the country to benefit from this growth and to create jobs and enhance the wealth of Americans.

It appears that the new Federal Reserve Chairman is doing everything to save those who created the sub-prime mess and are allowing the country's assets to decline and inflation to increase aggressively. Why are they ignoring this issue and making decisions, like continuing to reduce interest rates, which makes the value of the dollar lower and hurts all of those on fixed incomes?

We need sound long term economic strategies and policies and not just politically expedient short term fixes.


Bill Rothschild, CEO Rothschild Strategies Unlimited LLC, author of "The Secret to GE's Success".

GEWatcher Update (4) GE Money Another falling star!!

As I emphasized, in my latest book, The Secret to GE's Success, GE is a strategic portfolio managed company. It is willing to take risks and is committed to GOING BIG AND GLOBAL. Unfortunately, this means that some parts of its risk profile succeeds and others fail.

One of GE's growth stars has been GE Consumer Finance, now called GE Money. The credit card segment has been a major part of its growth. Since credit card interest rates have been unbelievable and some say "unethical". GE and other credit card companies have prospered, but recently several things have grown wrong. Less than two years ago, GE moved aggressively into Japan offering credit cards and loans, at high interest rates. However, this changed quickly when the Japanese instituted limits on the interest rates, the delinquency rates increased and GE Money lost heavily on sub-prime. The results have included: GE announced it will sell its Japanese unit and take an after tax loss of $906 million, it is the process of trying to find a buyer for its credit card business, GE liquidated $3.7 billion of its sub-prime mortgages at a loss and the units CEO and one of the founders of the unit, retired early.

The art and science of strategic thinking requires that leaders and their organizations anticipate change and take these potential changes into their strategic investments and resource allocations. Nothing lasts forever, especially if it is very positive. Obviously, these skills have declined at GE and the company has has number of negative surprises.

Bill Rothschild, author of the first book on strategic thinking and decision making, Putting It All Together- a guide to strategic thinking and decision making. This book was updated in 2002 and is used in many executive and MBA programs and is available on http://www.strategyleader.com/. This book describes the type of thinking required to avoid surprises and potential profit declines.

FEEL GOOD NUMBERS- must stop now....

Whether we like to admit it or not, we love positive numbers. When the Dow is moving up, we feel good; when the economists report that GNP is growing faster than expected, we feel good; when we are told that inflation is low, we feel good.

The major problem I believe they are manipulated to make us feel good and when the numbers turn negative, our government and others either just change the way they are calculated or explain why they are better than they appear.

For instance:
LOW INFLATION - The CNBC "Goldlock people and "expert(?)" economists" tell us there is LOW INFLATION... but we all know that we are paying more DAILY for gasoline, heating oil, bread, milk and everything else we use but, of course, these are NOT counted in the "feel good inflation calculations".

HIGH EMPLOYMENT.. The experts tell us that only 5% of the population is unemployed and this very good. In fact, the experts (?) tell us this is "full employment". But we all know professional and skilled people that are unemployed and may not be counted because they have dropped out of the search for jobs or not receiving unemployment insurance. Of course there are jobs, if you want to work part time in WalMart, but there are few professional and managerial positions because these jobs have been "outsourced and exported" to India and China.

DECLINING DOLLAR ..Our dollar is so weak that foreigners come to the UNITED STATES for shopping tours to get bargains, but Americans can't afford to go to Europe or Japan. But the "experts(?) tell us "not to worry" since a weak dollar helps the US export to other countries, but what they don't explain is that we really don't make many of the products that would benefit from a weak dollar, since they are imported from other low labor cost countries and our American factories have been harvested or just closed down.

The GREAT AMERICAN LIQUIDATION SALE. When the Dubai government wants to purchase of shipyards or other strategic assets, and the Chinese government are purchasing our financial institutions and technology companies at bargin prices, because our dollar is weak and these countries have huge, growing trade surpluses and have enormous dollar reserves; the experts (?) tell us this is great since it shows we are a global society.

THE REAL, not FEEL GOOD, NUMBERS... It is interesting that everyone wants TRANSPARENCY in companies and governments, but no one wants to admit that the UNITED STATES is a harvesting country with serious problems that we act like it is "Alice In Wonderland"..

WE NEED THE REAL NUMBERS and not the "feel good numbers" that are being used by our government, the media and those who are taking advantage of our decline. AMERICAN's can face reality, but they need to know what reality really is.. and the current trend to make the numbers "feel good" must stop. I hope that whoever becomes President... will have the courage to tell us the truth and not continue this FEEL GOOD fiasco...

Bill Rothschild, author of PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER- A GUIDE TO STRATEGIC THINKING AND DECISION MAKING, that provides a proven process to evalutate reality and make sound decisions based on the real facts, not "feel good facts.

Visit: http://www.strategyleader.com/ to order this and other strategic leadership books, software, tutorials and see a complete listing of all Bill's blogs, articles and commentaries.

GEWatchers (3) Results of "eliminating the bureaucracy"...

In my book The Secret to GE's Success, I describe that one of GE's historical great strengths was its strong financial and auditing organizations. These organizations enabled the company to spot problems before they became public and to avoid embarassing surprises. I also pointed out that one of Jack Welch's first actions when he became CEO was to was to attack what he called the "bureaucracy", which included finance and the auditing staffs. He reduced the auditing staff.

During the Welch era, the lack of a strong auditing staff resulted in the Kidder fiasco, in which one of the traders was able to loss over $350 million without the company's knowledge. The result was the GE had to divest Kidder.

However, it appears the lack of a strong auditing staff is still a major problem. The February 19, 2008 Wall Street Journal reported that GE has been under investigation for improperly reporting revenues since 2002. These are few of the highlights as reported in the WSJ:

• " In each of the past three quarters, GE has corrected financial statements because it improperly booked income at its rail, aircraft engines, health-care, enegery and water units". It is important to note that these are GE's major growth businesses and continually lauded by Immelt and his executive team as the great hopes for the future.

  "In the fourth quarter of 2003, for example, GE locomotive unit overstated revenues by 22.6% and profit by 16.6% according to SEC filing".

  To show the severity of this situation, the General Electric Company has hired Wilmer-Hale LLC's William McLucas, a former head of SEC's enforcement division to investigate the situation and, simultaneously, the GE Board's auditing committee has hired its own investigative group, Cravath, Swaine and Moore, LLP. In short, there are "investigators investating investigators and everyone is trying to protect themselves."

GE has fired a number of people involved and the company will make changes including: "adding staff incorporate accounting to review revenue matters and bolstering the internal-audit department". Obvious, not creative solutions!

As a GE stockholder and fan, I have three major concerns.

• First, is the fact this has happened and that GE must have reduced the strength and power of its internal auditing staff so that it is didn't know what is going on and was surprised. Surprise is one the major fatal flaws of any organization.
• Second, I am even more concerned that GE's increasing complexity, which I have discussed in my book and in several GE related articles and blogs, will make it worse. As GE moves globally, transfers facilities overseas, it will become even more difficult to know what is happening. Further, each country has different accounting and financial regulations and the employees in these countries may not be aware of the regulations and so it is likely that more surprises will occur. Like or not, GE is still a US corporation and subject to US laws.
• Third, everyone wants to look good and it is not uncommon to find that people will book sales before they happen or hide the real numbers. This is just human nature and will require strong financial and strategy review organizations.

I entitled the last section of my book about the Immelt era, "Back to the Future" since I believe it is critical that GE build on its past strengths as it moves into the future. I think that GE should take a close look at some of the reasons why it has been successful in the past and they will find that the financial, auditing and strategic thinking disciplines of the past were key to this success and must not be neglected.

GE and all CEOs must not classify those who do their job and bring up unpleasant issues as bureaucrats but recognize they need people who are willing to identify potential problems, help to avoid them and being surprised.

Bill Rothschild, author: "The Secret to GE's Success" and "Putting It All Together-a guide to strategic thinking and decision making". Both books emphasize the need to "avoid surprises, especially surprising yourself". They are available on http://www.strategyleader.com/.

GE Watcher (2) Making GE even more complex.

In my most recent book: The Secret to GE's Success" and my article comparing Buffet and Immelt in Chief Executive magazine, I emphasized that one of GE's major strategic challenges was dealing with complexity. I truly believe that one of the reasons that GE's stock has not done well in the past seven years is that the investors don't understand GE because of this complexity and would prefer to place their bets in areas which are more understandable. My recommendation is to simplify the company, like Buffet has done.

However, it appears that the GE leaders have decided to make it even more complex. They recently announced that the GE Money's Consumer business will move its headquarters from Stamford, Connecticut USA to London. The GE Healthcare business is already located outside of London as a result of an acquisition and the promise to a senior officer that the headquarters would be in the UK.

This move adds to the complexity of managing the business, retaining key people, dealing with different government regulations, tax laws and cultures, making decisions and security problems. GE has already made its research and development complicated by having R&D facilities in China, India, Europe and the United States, which have enormous communications, cultural and SECURITY issues.

It is clear that my perceptions and those of the Immelt team are far apart and that GE has decided to become a WORLD, not a US company.... I believe this is a mistake for the long term.

Your comments and insights are welcome...

Bill Rothschild, author of "The Secret to GE's Success", which describes GE's successes and failures.. and why it has been able to prosper for 126 years.

Immigration Problems Need More Than Good Management.

I recently read the Jack and Suzy Welch weekly Business Week column "Immigration: A Reality Check" which urges the reader to face reality and view the immigration problem from a management perspective. There are some good insights in their comments, but what they fail to include is that the reality is that there is not one immigration problem, but several, each with its own causes and each must be solved individually.

Legal Versus ILLEGAL Immigrants. The Welchs' quote a Tuft's immigration history professor, who says that all immigrants have tried to stop the next wave of immigrants. This is probably true but we are not dealing with "legal immigrantes" we are dealing with "illegal immigrants". My own and my wife's ancestors all came from foreign countries, but they came here legally and this makes them different from the major issue facing us to day.

At Least Four Different Segments and Problems. To solve the problem, we need to segment the problem into the different types of illegal aliens and the reasons they have violated our immigration laws. These are few of the key types:

1. Visa violators- I have read that 45% of the illegals are here because they came on legal Visas and never went back home. Clearly, this means that we need to know who comes to this country and who doesn't leave? One expert pointed out that if Fedex and UPS can track millions of documents and packages daily and know where they are at all time, why is it so complicated to know who and where those who are violating US Visa rules are? All passports now have barcodes and so we should use them to monitor who enters the country and when they leave. If they don't leave we can track them down and deport them.
   
2. Seasonal, "slave- like laborers"- Second, there are millions of people who are coming here to work in "poor paying, seasonal jobs", who are being hired by "greedy" individuals who are only interested in taking advantage of their poverty and inability to earn a living in Mexico. Several decades ago, there were immigrant children working in sweat shops in most of our urban areas. Their employees claimed that this was the only way to compete. However, laws were passed and implemented to stop this practice and the employers were put in jail if they violated the law. What is so different about the current situation where greedy people are exploiting the current poor illegal workers? These dishonest business people argue that if they didn't have these "slave" labors they would go out of business. I don't think this is true since many employers in these industries follow the law and are still able to make money and stay in business, even when they have to compete against those who violate the law and take advantage of these poor people. It is true we might have to pay a little more for our fruits or vegetables or to have services provided, but I think most of us would be happy to do so or be willing to do without.
   
3. Foreign Students- Third, there are thousands of foreign students, who "the Welchs' describe as entrepeneurs, in our colleges and universities who don't leave our country when they graduate and in fact, many don't even show up for classes. Again, we have laws that must be inforced and it is the responsibility of the Universities and trade schools, to know who is in class, who is in violation of the law and report them.


4. Mexico has failed- The fourth and maybe, most important reason is that Mexico lacks the leadership to use its natural resources and strategic position with the United States to create good paying jobs. Over the past several decades, many US companies moved their manufacturing to Mexico to take advantage of its lower labor costs and proximity to the United States. Obviously, the Mexican government has not been able to capitalize on these gifts and oppotunities to create a stable society. It is pathetic that Mexican citizens will risk their lives, leave their families, even pay to be "imported into the United States" and to take poor paying, difficult jobs in order to escape from their homeland. This is a complex problem, but if Mexico can't take care of it own people, the broken borders will continue and even get worse.
   
   

In short, these are just four entirely different situations, each has a different cause and must be solved individually. If we enforced our current laws we would at least stop the growth of the illegal immigrants.

Another assertion in the Welchs' column is that it is impossible to deport all of the 12 million plus aliens already here. This is true. But it doesn't mean that all of the current illegals are the same. Again we need to segment them and deal with each separately. This is just common sense and sound strategic thinking. For example:

1. Hard working individuals, who want to be citizens and pay taxes. Some of those here illegally are hard working, good people who want to pay taxes and be given a chance to become citizens. However, we must be fair to those who become citizens by following the rules and it must be highly selective, since not everyone fits into this category.


2. Opportunists- Others are just here opportunistically and have no interest in becoming citizens or paying taxes. They take jobs, don't pay taxes, send the money home and plan to leave. They have no desire to be citizens and pay taxes. Often, many in this category go on welfare and take away the funds that should be allocated to citizens who deserve them. These should be deported.


3. Criminals and Terrorists- A third group are criminals and even potential terrorists. These should be dealt with like any other criminals and put in jail and then deported. If their native countries will not expatriate them, then they stay in jail. This will communicate the message to these unwanted individuals and will deter more to follow.
   

In conclusion: This is not just another management problem and the reality is that we are dealing with a very complex number of different problems. However, these problems can't be ignored or just passed over as "reality". They impact our homeland security, economy, legal system and ability to retain our national identity. We need real strategic leaders, with the courage to stand up and be counted and not just try and satisfy the few greedy business people or to get the votes of those who favor ignoring it. Timing is NOW...it will require consisten actions and not just slogan and words.

Bill Rothschild, author of "Risktaker, caretaker, surgeon, undertakers- the four faces of strategic leadership" and The Secret to GE's Success, both available on http://www.strategyleader.com/ and Amazon sites.

While Rome Burns- the circus continues!!

Leaders set priorities and try and solve the most vital problems facing their organization.

It is obvious that our elected representatives are not real leaders. Yesterday's Roger Clemens' circus is an excellent example of a lack of leadership.

Our elected officals are more concerned about the use of performance enhancing drugs in major league baseball, than trying to pass legisltation to enable our law enforcement officers to provide real security, or determining how to fix the out of control immigration problems, or helping their constituents to get good paying jobs... in short, they lack the ability and willingness to set priorities and solve them.

The press are equally to blame. Many of the networks had full coverage of the meeting, almost like the McCarthy hearnings, and are more interest in covering the sensational, than the critical events and issues. When they get an issue they beat it death and then move on to other issues and do the same. This approach seems to sell advertising and newspapers so it must be what some of the people want. But it is clearly a waste of time and distracts us from solving key issues.

Time is short, the real issues need to focused on and some solutions found.

Bill Rothschild author of Risktaker, Caretaker, Surgeon Undertaker- the four faces of strategic leadership...available on www.strategyleader.com and AMAZON.

Leaders fail because they over-promise.

Leaders fail because they create unrealistic expectations and don't achieve them.

I have emphasized that the country is in crisis and that the current political approach is to promise immediately cures to solve our healthcare, educational, infrastructure, homeland security and the Iraq war. The theme is a "time for change"...but it is clear that all of these problems can't be solved immediately, especially since we lack the money, people, systems and "will" to do them all.

One prime exampe is solving the mess in Iraq. This has become another devicive unpopular war, like Viet Nam. Solutions proposed is that we "immediately withdraw our troops" and let the Iraq government fix its own problems. Others are vowing to fight until we win, even if it takes decades, both are creating unrealistic expectations and both will fail.

Business CEO get themselves in the same trap because they want to please ALL oftheir stakeholders and especially their stockholders or Wall Street. This is the fatal flaw... you can't satisfy everyone equally and you must set priorities and implement them. Companies in crisis do the same as the politicans and promise to fix the problems quickly and they too fail.

There are no simple solutions to complex problems and situations, they must be segmented into smaller pieces and each dealt with individually... The first step is to set priorities.

Strategic Portfolio Prioritization.
Though the politicans and CEOs run the risk of losing their jobs, I would recommend that they segment the problem or business and focus on those parts where they can win and be willing to delay or ignore those areas that they can't win. This is called Strategic Portfolio Planning and Prioritization.

Do What they Say.
Once the portfolio has been assessed and priorities set, then the leaders and politicans must be will do do what they say and not deviate from the game plan, unless it is not working.

Tactics are the Secrets.
Keeping the key stakeholders informed is vital, but you can't tell them everything. It is okay to communicate the overall strategy, but never the detailed implementation plan. Timing and degree of response are the secrets that must be protected.

For instance if and when the US will withdraw troops from Iraq, it is okay to say we plan to withdraw them, but not the specific units, the number and the timing. These are the keys to success and the enemy must not know the details. The same is true of companies. If a company plans to introduce a new innovative product line, it is fine to tell people you are working on it, but not the detailed execution plan.

In short, creating expectations is vital and it requires sound strategic thinking, decision making, prioritization and precise, secretive execution. "Only promise what you can deliver, if you can do it, say so and move on...even if it means losing your job". You and the key stakeholders will be better off in the long term.

Bill Rothschild, is author of The Secret to GE's Success, Putting it All Together- a guide to strategic thinking and decision making, and How to Gain and Maintain the Competitive Advantage in Business...Each of these books deals with the art and science of creating realistic expectations and all are availabe on his website: http://www.strategyleader.com/


This topic will continue to be discussed in future blogs... your comments and insights are welcome.

GE Watchers UPDATE (1)

A continuing part of my website http://www.strategyleader.com/ and this blog is to discuss what GE is doing today and how it relates to their past successes and failures, as described in my book: The Secret to GE's Success. I plan to discuss leadership, adaptability, talent, influencing and networks LATIN, which I have concluded summarizes the keys to any organizations success.

Leadership- GE's senior management continue to tell the world that their strategy is working and that they should invest. Unfortunately the stock has not responded and there appears to be continuing concerns about whether "GO BIG/ GO GLOBAL" is working.

Adaptability-
"The February 25, 2008 issue of FORBES has an article: "Cranking Up the Volume- one reason medical costs are getting out of control: GE employs too many good salesmen".

The article describes how GE encouraged its customers to invest in more, highly sophisticated, capital intensive and expensive MRIs and other diagnostic equipment and prescribe that patients use the equipment frequently. Unfortunately the INSURANCE companies and Medicare are challenging the need for doing these tests as often.

One of the customers: summarized the situation " we really do face a crisis". GE has been forced to reduce prices, provide more services and as a result GE's Healthcare's profits dipped 4% in 2007. Immelt, who led this business and used its success as a means of gaining his current CEO position, described 2008 as a "turnaround year". It is clear that Healthcare which was one of GE's "stars" is not climbing to new heights and in fact may be a "falling star".

GE Money MOVING to London... The February 8, 2008 edition of the Financial Times reported that GE MONEY'S Consumer finance division is moving its headquarters from Connecticut to London.

The current president of the business unit, David Nissen, who has 27 years of GE service and has led the business unit for 15 years will retire early. He is only 56. It was pointed out that the move to London makes sense since three-quarters of the profits come from overseas.

This unit took a $1 billion hit because of its sub-prime gambles and is in the process of selling off all or part of its credit card business. GE continues to BET ON THE GLOBAL opportunities and increasingly is becoming less of US company.... I think the real issue is whether this business unit will ever regain its luster and profitability or should be a candidate for divestiture.

Talent- There is a class action suit being filed by women who claim they were discriminated against. This is ironic since Immelt is a member of Catalyst, a women's advocacy group and has significantly increased the number of women in key management positions.

Overall, Immelt and his team continue to believe that they are on the right track and it is just a matter of time before it will yield positive results for its key stakeholders, especially stockholders.... stay tuned as the story unfolds...

Bill Rothschild, Author of "The Secret to GE's Success" (which describes the key elements required for any organization to succeed).

It's all about EXPECTATIONS!!

Early in my career, I learned a very important lesson: never to overpromise and create expectations that you can't meet. As a result I have always counselled my clients, students, employees and audiences to "create the minimumly acceptable expectations and then always meet or even slightly exceed them".
There are many illustrations of companies, organizations and individuals that have created unrealistic expectations and have failed. In the sports world, The New York Yankees have created the expectation that they will win the World Series every year and so when they just come in second everyone is disappointed. The same was true of the recent Super Bowl. The New England Patriots were cited as the "greatest professional football team ever" and it was expected they would beat the Giants and have a perfect record. In fact, all of the experts predicted them to win and some by a large margin. On the other end, no one had high expectations for the Giants and so when they won they were honored with a parade in New York.
The current United States Presidential elections are an excellent example of "creating expectations" that are not achievable. All of the candidates say that they will not only solve the current major problems, like the Iraq war, keeping the country safe, keep the economy strong, but also will provide healthcare and social security for everyone... create equal opportunities for everyone and wipe out proverty. They promise everyone everything and they cause people to not believe anything they say. The leaders lose credibility which is one of the major requirements of their success.
But these types of promises are not just restricted to politicans. Corporate CEOs promise higher revenues, improved earnings and higher stock prices. Companies in crisis, like Chrysler, promise that they will turn things around and become a profitable leader again.
Unfortunately, most of the promises are not achieved and the stakeholders become sketical and don't believe anyone.
Leaders must not fall into this trap. They must be able to clearly understand what is doable and realistic and then set the right level of expectations. They then must do what they say. If they are wrong, leaders must be willing to admit their mistakes and just blame everyone and circumstances, for their failure.
In short, leaders at all levels in all major institutions must avoid surprising their key stakeholders and themselves.
In the next few blogs, I would like focus on how you should create and meet realistic expectations.

Bill Rothschild
Author of "The Secret to GE's Success"- which shows how GE was able to set and consistently meet expectations and avoid major surprises and "Putting It All Together- a guide to strategic thinking" ( which describes the art and science of setting and meeting realistic expectations". Check out his website: www.strategyleader.com to find out how to get both of these books.

It will take more than good leadership skills to fix the current mess in the United States.

There are a number of "management guru's" who assert that what the United States needs is a strong business leader. This is the message of Mitt Romney. But I think this is being naive and that there are several differences between leading a company or organization and leading the United States.

• First and most important is the ability to control the budgetting and spending processes. CEO control the budget and have "line item and project by project veto" power. They can control waste and balance the budget. This is NOT true with the president. Though it is obvious that the president needs this power, congress will not give it to them. (Unless there is a crisis that overrides their self interests).
• Second business leaders can select their management and leadership styles. If they wish they can be autocrats, consultative or consensus managers, they can select the stylethey like the best and fits the situation. There is no one style that fits all situations. This is not true in America's current socio/political climate. The United States is "popularity poll" driven. If a poll shows that something is unpopular with a key constituent group the congress and even president backs down and follows, doesn't lead, the crowd. Most of our current candidates are clearly either consultative or consensus oriented.
• Third, in most companies there is no such thing as tenure. Everyone and everything is vulnerable and can be removed. However, the United States has adopted the "house of lords' policies and has a SENATE and some Congressional members that are "tenured and stay on until they die". These tenured individuals are responsible for the "polk barrel" items in all of the major legislation, since it is the polk that keeps them popular and allows them to get reelected term after term. This is one of the reasons the US keeps running a increasing huge deficits and why the dollar and US power is declining in the world. The United States needs TERM LIMITS in all phases of government and at all levels. Many states and cities have limits, even the President is limited to two terms, why not the senate and house. I would limit the senate to two terms (12 years is enough) and extend the house to four years, but limit them to two terms (eight years is good enough for the present why not them?)
• Selectivity is vital to successful companies. The winning companies identify the best businesses and focus on them. They have a "portfolio management approach". They are willing to allocate more resources to their best businesses and starve others or even exit or divest them. In the US, we are all things to all people. Everyone want their "unfair share" and are not willing to accept priorities. Everyhting is sacred and nothing is expendible. The result is the government continues to go into debt, harvest its resources and even willing to sell its assets to the highest bidders.

I am not saying that leadership characteristics may not be in common from the private to the public sector, but the execution strategies and realities are very different.

In my past few blogs, I have stressed the need for the country to recognize it is in a crisis situation and to elect SURGEON leaders both in the executive and legislative branches. But unless the president is given LINE ITEM VETO power, permitted to select the most appropriate leadership style and live within the countries means, the greatest leader will fail. Further we need TERM LIMITS and the ability to get rid of the "polk barrel/ self serving senators and representatives and have new and focused leaders. Selectivity and living within our means is critical for anyone and any organization, it must be done at the governmental level

The only way this will happen in the United States is when THERE IS A MAJOR CRISIS that everyone accepts and moves to solve. The good news, it has happened in the past and I think it can happen again.

Bill Rothschild

Author of " The Secret to GE's Success" ( which describes the key elements required for any organization to succeed) and Risktaker, Caretaker, Surgeon, Undertaker- the four faces of strategic leadership (which specifies how to select the right leader and right team to succeed). Both can be purchased on his website: http://www.strategyleader.com/ or on AMAZON.

Your comments and insights are welcome...

What it takes to be a Surgeon Leader...

In my previous two blogs, I emphasized the need for the United States to have strong "surgeon" leaders both in the executive and legislative branches of the government. Let me summarize what is required to be a surgeon leaders.

• The first and one of the most important characteristics is the willingness to objectively assess the entire situation and set priorities. This means that nothing is sacred and everything are evaluated in the same way.
• Second is the recognition that time is of essence. There must be a strong sense of urgency. It can't be "as soon as possible", rather the top priorities must be implemented first. If there is a need to exit or stop doing something, even if it requires changing the "sacred cows" of the past.
• Third, since no one is right all of the time, the surgeon leader must be adaptive and not fixated. If things change or if the actions being taken are not working then the surgeon leader must also adapt. This doesn't mean they are willing to change for the sake of change, but that it is necessary.
• Finally, the leader must be willing to share and communicate.

Suregon leaders are very skilled and there are not many leaders that can fit this role. Surgeon leaders must be willing to take the heat. Popularity is not that critical to them.

Many companies have been successful because they were able to have surgeon leaders, but it is even more difficult for those in public sector. Business leaders have more control and when they make a decision to take action, they normally have the power to do so. Unfortunately, in our society, the President is not in a position to just take actions on their own. They must be able to negotiate and create alliances before they can execute. However, when it is clear that the country is in a crisis situation, the President and senior members of congress have more power to act.

In the next blog, I will discuss what I think specifically needs to happen for the United States to address the current crisis situation.

Bill Rothschild

Author of "The Secret to GE's Success" and "Risktaker, Caretaker, Surgeon, Undertaker- the four faces of strategic leadership". Available on Amazon and http://www.strategyleader.com/