The other day I was listening to an Egyptian intellectual being asked about the development of the country\u2019s new constitution.\u00a0 When asked if this should be done on religious or secular grounds he replied suggesting that this was not the right question; the issue was should it be drawn up by draughtsmen or dreamers?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I think this same distinction applies in business when leaders need to develop strategies and change plans.\u00a0 Luckily for most businesses this is not a once in a lifetime opportunity like the challenge now facing many countries in the wake of the Arab spring.\u00a0 So the choice is not really either \/ or.\u00a0 Leaders must have the ability to do a little of both and have the wisdom to know how much of each is required in a given situation.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
In these austere times, when survival is the name of the game then undoubtedly the skills of the draughtsman must win out.\u00a0 Careful, disciplined attention to detail is the most effective way to eliminate waste without cutting in to the capabilities that will be so vital when recovery opportunities appear.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
However no business ever cut its way to glory.\u00a0 There must be a time for ambition and there is a time when leaders must have the courage to dream a little.\u00a0 In previous posts I\u2019ve quoted king Solomon \u2013 \u201cWithout vision the people shall perish\u201d.\u00a0 A business perpetually run by draughtsmen is a dull and uninspiring place to be.<\/p>\n
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Survival comes at a price.\u00a0 It\u2019s the leader\u2019s job to ensure that it doesn\u2019t come at too great a price.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The other day I was listening to an Egyptian intellectual being asked about the development of the country\u2019s new constitution.\u00a0 When asked if this should be done on religious or secular grounds he replied suggesting that this was not the right question; the issue was should it be drawn up by draughtsmen or dreamers? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-knowledge-snippet"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/northlightassociates.com\/Blog-page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/northlightassociates.com\/Blog-page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/northlightassociates.com\/Blog-page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northlightassociates.com\/Blog-page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northlightassociates.com\/Blog-page\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/northlightassociates.com\/Blog-page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":71,"href":"https:\/\/northlightassociates.com\/Blog-page\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70\/revisions\/71"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/northlightassociates.com\/Blog-page\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northlightassociates.com\/Blog-page\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/northlightassociates.com\/Blog-page\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}