The other issue with this piece is that the vast majority of problems companies have in a more cash constrained environment are ultimately accounting problems.
No amount of "existential threat" pressure on teams to perform will replace leadership going through the balance sheet and figuring out where profits/growth/etc is getting it's highest return on investment and where it's not. Then planning for how to change that.
I was at a newly IPO'd company a few years back and it was almost laughable the gap between leadership's fantasies about profitability and the raw data in the earnings statement. Not a single decision planned or statement made addressed the mathematical reality of the balance sheet.
A simple "We need to get X% more out of this, and reduce the cost of that by Y% and we'll be good, here's our plan..." would have been endlessly more productive then feel good speeches and pressure on teams to improve performance in unspecified areas.
No amount of "existential threat" pressure on teams to perform will replace leadership going through the balance sheet and figuring out where profits/growth/etc is getting it's highest return on investment and where it's not. Then planning for how to change that.
I was at a newly IPO'd company a few years back and it was almost laughable the gap between leadership's fantasies about profitability and the raw data in the earnings statement. Not a single decision planned or statement made addressed the mathematical reality of the balance sheet.
A simple "We need to get X% more out of this, and reduce the cost of that by Y% and we'll be good, here's our plan..." would have been endlessly more productive then feel good speeches and pressure on teams to improve performance in unspecified areas.