Back to Basics - Happy New Year !

Wishing everyone a very Happy, Healthy & Prosperous New Year !

May we be blessed with "new eyes" to be able to see things afresh and deal with them in a more creative and innovative manner.

Don't worry about the financial crisis - there is opportunity wherever there is danger or crisis.

The Economist magazine in an article published on 7th March 2002 entitled "Back to Basics"has this to say and we in WG have internalized it since it first appeared. I think the advise is still very relevant especially now.

This is the excerpt of the article :

"IF BAD times make good leaders, America is due for a host of them. The recession that began in March last year and the terrorist attacks on September 11th made 2001 an unforgettably awful year. At such times people react strangely. Some are frozen in indecision while others act with unnecessary haste. Across large corporations, such behaviour, multiplied many times, can be disastrous. At times of crisis, having the right people in the right place is vital. In a boom there is enough fat to absorb some bad judgment; in a recession good management becomes a survival issue.

Dave Young, head of the Boston Consulting Group's Boston office, maintains that for many companies the downturn will turn out to be a blessing. “It means that, increasingly, value in the capital markets will accrue not to ‘irrational exuberance' or to sector hype,” he says, “but to good management.” But what, in such circumstances, constitutes good management? It is certainly not something that can be conjured up out of the blue. Companies that have it now had it in good times too, and found it useful then; the difference is that in today's harsher climate it has become essential.

This survey suggests that the core of good management is a set of three old-fashioned virtues that were often forgotten in the bubble years, when anything seemed to go. At a minimum, good managers have to meet the following criteria:

• be honest;

• be frugal;

• be prepared. "

Hope that helps you a little in dealing with 2009..

Cheers