Smooth Sailing

As many business leaders try to grapple with the harsh reality of today's market, I believe that many leaders do not really understand what their businesses are actually doing (or as I ask my clients..."what business are you really in") and have become so focused on their end results.

A recent piece in the McKinsey Quarterly talks about this and refers to it as the "Smooth Sailing" phenomenon, where if all appears to be going well then it is, and they are really not prepared for the underlying realities that all markets eventually bring up. The following is a great quote from the piece. I will post the link to the entire McKinsey article after the quote.


"I think that what has been the big wake-up call for people—and why they feel disquieted—is because they know in their gut that they don’t know where they’re going. They can’t see the future. And they haven’t got a business model and a strategy designed for an uncertain, unpredictable environment. They've got a strategy and business model for smooth sailing."

http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Management_lessons_from_the_financial_crisis_A_conversation_with_Lowell_Bryan_and_Richard_Rumelt_236

China Crawls Out Of Recession

A great link from McKinsey to a good conversation between some thinkers on China from the China point of view.


http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Economic_Studies/Country_Reports/Is_China_recession_proof_2366