Who Should Be Promoted?

Who should be promoted: Someone who takes a worse than average loss in a bad marketplace or someone who has better than average gains in a great marketplace? Ideally both would be promotable, but in the real world, the former gets fired and the latter gets promoted. Then when times are bad, the manager who was promoted because of his or her success in an easy marketplace has no idea how to manage a down cycle. This is how I perceive the business environment in the last 10 years. The health and longevity of any business is determined by its ability to excel in good times and remain stable in poor economic conditions. The real test of a strategic thinker is his/her ability to function in a poor marketplace. When I was an account manager at Fujitsu consulting (1999), I saw the technology consulting marketplace turn on a dime once the Y2K spending dried up. I remember the Director of Sales was asked by Corporate to provide a strategic document for managing the business going forward. Quote: "I don't know what a f$#@%ing strategy is!". He proceeded to show me his pictures of all is buddies with whom he worked at IBM, most of who then also made up the upper management of Fujitsu Consulting. It was a good 'ol boys network. And these guys where making some serious cash! They didn't have the know how to develop a strategic plan (nor the incentive since they were financially set). Coming from an Advertising background with some of the best and brightest strategic thinkers in the World, it confounded me how someone could rise this high in any organization and be this stupid. I remember at one sales meeting when the President of Fujitsu North America visited the New York office and presented her aggressive revenue targets. In the highly political and extremely aggressive universe of NY tech sales, it's best to keep your mouth shut at those meetings, but there I was raising my hand: "Excuse me. Exactly what is the strategy accomplishing these goals?". The President responded, "Hard work. And we have the inside track on some new business." Ah, yes the old "rainmaker" strategy. They threw more money at these overpriced rainmakers with their supposed "inside" contacts. Flash forward: It yielded nothing! But they got to hire their friends. (Besides, that wasn't a strategy; it was a tactic!) They had no idea what they were doing.

So in these economically tough times, pay attention to the strategic thinkers who are capable of high level thinking and their ability to execute the plans at the tactical level. Once again, businesses have the opportunity to recognize and promote the smarter people to the management positions and wash themselves of the Good Time Charlies that managed to luck their way into their promotions.