HarrisonGray Provides Counsel for Management Needing to Refocus in Order to Impact Earnings

ATLANTA and CHICAGO, JUNE 12, 2002 - The attention given to corporate quarterly earnings forces many companies to focus on a quarterly horizon. Internal departments must react even faster, and management may need to be recharged and refocused in 30 days. HarrisonGray management consulting realizes the predicament many leaders are facing. As a result, they have laid out the four steps necessary to take in order to achieve success with your current leadership team.

"Many of us have grown up with the belief that the path to management success involves the ability to take a long term view of business, developing a measured response to changes in the business environment, rather than just reacting," said Robin Cramp, a partner at HarrisonGray. "In other words, successful managers must be visionaries, not foot soldiers."

It’s a great theory, but, nowadays, that’s about all it is. "The reality of today’s business climate is that whether we like it or not, for now and for the foreseeable future, U.S. business will be run strictly on a short-term basis," Cramp continued.

The reason for this? Historically low interest rates. With bank deposit interest rates that make even the most conservatively priced stock look attractive by comparison, Wall Street remains the place where Americans and American companies put most of their money. Naturally, in these turbulent times, investors like to keep a close eye on their investments, and the focal point of most investors’ attention today is the Quarterly Earnings Report. Heaven help the Company that trounced last year’s numbers, or saw a significant jump over the Quarter before, but still fails to meet the analysts’ expectations for its latest Quarter. Its stock will be hammered, shareholders will lose confidence, possibly so will the Board, and where will the finger point? To line management.With this kind of fire drill occurring every few months, it is no wonder that the classic long- term business view has become sublimated into a quarterly perspective in most Companies. But if the Company is working towards the next Quarter, the individual departments are faced with an even shorter horizon as managers attempt to adjust their departments’ activities to match ever-changing Company objectives. The most common horizon below a Quarter is a month, or 30 days as a more consistent metric. As a result, more and more department managers are finding that their performance, and that of their departments, is being regularly reviewed over a 30-day cycle.

The bottom line, then, is that if you want to remain a successful Company, you had better be able to turn your management team’s performance around within a period of 30 days. Welcome to the era of the 30 Day Manager.

Cramp lays out a chronological path that specifies the kind of activities that, if initiated within 30 days, will enable you to meet your Company’s goals, satisfy your Customers’ requirements, and significantly improve the performance of your management team. It is available at http://www.harrisongray.com/whitepapers/30DayManager.pdf