planning

A couple of months ago, in our e-newsletters, we touched on the importance of planning in making good business decisions about staffing.

For example, workforce planning is not an event—it is a long continuum of defining future needs, assessing current capabilities, and taking incisive actions towards filling the gaps.

Regardless of economic conditions businesses must continue to plan and make commitments to their futures if they are to keep up, compete and maintain their viability.

And that about sums it up. You literally need a plan for everything.

The heartbreaking stories from the devastating earthquakes across the globe recently — Haiti, Chile and China — invariably talked about the increased destruction and loss associated with poorly constructed commercial buildings, schools and dwellings. Absent well-designed and constructed foundations and infrastructure, these structures collapsed or at a minimum experienced far greater damage than the rest. A clarion call for building structures securely in the first place and for avoiding the misery that can ensue otherwise.

I think this is a great metaphor for businesses.