A Long Lasting Business Needs to be Directed
by Wise Long-Term Decisions
The short-term versus the long-term
When we speak of the short-term, we usually mean what would benefit the
business in a short span of time. It could mean getting a huge amount
of profit for a short-period of time or it could mean a big expansion
within just a little period of time. On the other hand, when we speak
of the long-term, we usually mean what would affect or benefit a business
if it were to survive the start-up years, sail through the stability years
and move forward to the future. Sometimes, when a business owner
or a corporation where to make decisions that would affect
their business, they have to think first how the decision will affect the
business in the short-term and also how the decision will affect the
business in the long-term. Often, businesses cannot accommodate benefits
that would equally be good in the short-term and in the long-term at the
same time. What likely happens in reality is that we need to sacrifice
the short-term benefit in favor of the long-term, or we need to sacrifice
the long-term benefit in favor of the short-term. Whatever be the decision
of management or the corporate owners, the decision will eventually have
effects that will carry on over to the long-term. The ideal decision is
one that provides benefits for both the short-term and the long-term.
Decision-making depends on how long you want to run
your business
If you want to make huge profits in a short span of time without really
intending to make your business last for a long time, then short-term
decisions which favor such would be what the business needs. If however,
you want your business to last for a long time and thereby provide for you
a source of income way up to your retirement years, then decisions that
favor the long-term is what your business needs. Even if the business for
instance needs to sacrifice profits in the short-term but will eventually
gain better and larger profits in the future for the long-term, then better
to wisely take on the decision that will benefit the long-term. Wise long-term
decisions are what will make your business grow steadily and be founded
on solidly-based and highly-principled decisions that not only benefit
you, your partners, or co-owners and your employees, but most of all, the
society and industry in which your business operates. Money, income and
revenue that is gained through long-term decisions are often not easily
lost and spent unwisely. Rather, it is money, income and revenue that is
gained through short-term decisions that look only at the present and the
ripeness of a single opportunity that is easily lost and spent unwisely.
The wisdom of deciding more for the long-term
Although we may at times need to really make a short-term decision for our
business, when we focus more on the long-term decision and what it can do
and benefit our business for the long-run, this is what will really make the business
an asset not only for the immediate people involved in the business,
but also for the society and industry in which it operates in. If our
business minds are trained to think in terms of the long-run, the long-term,
what will benefit its immediate business environment, and how it should be handled
by succeeding generations, then for sure, our business minds will be geared to
obtain a certain business wisdom that sees the bigger
picture, the larger context, and the long-stretch of time that it will have to
live through if it is to survive the many business doldrums, depressions, economic
downturns, and financial crises. What is important therefore is not to be too
focused in getting a profit as soon as we can or "all the time". We can sacrifice
the profit in the near term for a better one and for larger incomes to come in the future -
if we really are serious about building a solid and long lasting business.
What we can focus on in the short-term in building our business is giving as
much service excellence as we can for our clients and customers and developing
greater credibility and trust within the social milieu of our business. This will
create the goodwill necessary to expand the business and create that intangible
assets that cannot be bought by any huge amount of money. These intangible assets,
like quality customer relations management and many repeat business, are the
assets that would prove to be the most important and precious nontangible asset
for many, many generations.
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