Negative Effects of Short Term Profits

The most recent issue of Harvard Business Review features an article entitled If Brands Are Built over Years, Why Are They Managed over Quarters? I thought this final quote was worth sharing.

Brand Management today is like driving a car by looking only a few feet ahead. The drivers can change direction rapidly, but they're not necessarily on a path that will take them where they want to go. In the face of an increasingly fragmented media and powerful retailers, brand managers cannot afford to be steering their brands in the wrong direction. Mounting evidence suggests that a short-term orientation erodes a brand's ability to compete in the marketplace. Accordingly, managers are well advised to refocus their attention on the basic principles that once made their brands ascendant.

I often find myself being short-sighted and need to look at long term effects of what is done today.

If you are intereseted in this article, email me at craig@matchstic.com and I'll send you a copy.

Craig Johnson
Matchstic