Remember Evel Knievel? Garbed in the tacky, white leather outfit that only the 1970s could produce, Knievel would launch himself and his Harley-Davidson across obstacle-strewn distances mortals of lesser stuff (or greater sense) wouldn't dream of attempting. Staging his daredevil stunts was an expensive proposition and Knievel was often short on cash but there's one thing I can guarantee he never said: "I'm low on funds, so I'll use some of my crew to hold up the ramp instead of building scaffolding."
But if we flip the channel from The Wide World of Sports to The Wide World of C-Suite Decisions, the performers are making the opposite choice. Faced with flagging sales, Brandon Graham, the North American regional president of a European software firm, recently fired the consultant he had hired to lead strategic planning. The same consultant he hired because the division was on track to miss profit goals.
Graham isn't an outlier. Confronted by a downturn in fortunes or a shortfall versus target the typical CEO or CFO directs everyone to batten down the hatches. All "unnecessary" spending is cut and, henceforth, using consultants is verboten! Now go make our profit target.
You can almost see the curly-mopped Knievel questioning the top brass. "So, Mr. Executive let me get this right:
- Your current people, processes and approaches have your business moving too slowly;
- Your lack of speed has created a gap between where you'll probably land and your target;
- Therefore, your business will now have to over-perform versus your original expectations;
- You require that over-performance to come from the same people (and the processes and approaches they developed) as in #1.
Here's some advice: Don't bet your career on reaching your target."
Knievel knew his motorcycle had to reach 90 mph to clear 16 cars, so when his current setup only yielded 86 mph his reaction was to buy a higher ramp. No amount of leaning forward or streamlining was going to get him the critical extra speed. So, while he saved money by forgoing a professional videographer and having his wife film his jump, he invested extra money on the takeoff platform.
Maybe you think that every other executive who reached an aggressive target did it on their own--proving their genius and leadership abilities by marshaling internal resources to heights of performance previously unknown. In most cases you'd be wrong. Executives who lead their companies to new heights get an assist. They buy a higher ramp and hire a specialist to fine-tune the engine.
In the real world you and other corporate leaders occupy, where we're typically confining our leaps to muddy puddles at the curb, the question is this: which investments in outside resources are going to generate the extra four miles per hour, and which are just making the gap larger without boosting our speed?
