Why Not Take the Fast Track Out of This Recession?

By Ross Reck

Right now there's not a lot of excitement in America, and rightfully so, because there's not a whole lot to get excited about. The economy is awful, people are still losing their jobs and homes continue to be foreclosed upon. Everyone would like to see this recession end sooner than later, but all indications are that it will end later - much later. This begs the question: is there anything that can be done to speed this process up so that we can begin to see the light at the end of the tunnel? The answer is YES and it's really quite simple; but the executives running American businesses must abandon their century-old practice of top-down management and replace it with company-wide collaboration. The assumption behind top-down management is that the people at the top possess all the necessary knowledge to make decisions that are in the best interest of the business. That assumption is no longer true. It's the employees on the front line - the people who do the work that the company gets paid for - who possess that knowledge. They're the ones who understand how the business works and they know what needs to be done to fix things. So, why not take advantage of this wealth of knowledge? [more...]