Short Run Savings or Long Run Strategy
What tactics drive your business outcomes? Are you looking for efficiency, effectiveness, and low cost? Do you expect to be around for a while? Using a long run strategy may help.
Short Run Savings
A CEO buys a new full-size SUV every few years. It has a big engine and she runs the lowest octane gasoline. Washing, waxing, and maintenance are a low priority.
The logic may be that saving twenty or thirty cents per gallon add ups. The tank size is twenty-five plus gallons, so every time at the pump it is a few bucks less.
Washing and waxing are a waste of time and expense. In a day or two it will rain and just be dirty again.
Oil changes happen, but only when it is convenient. The warning lights or messages are just that, a warning, you have a few hundred more miles.
This is a short run game for a vehicle that may have a life span of fifteen, twenty, or more years. The argument may be that cheaper gas runs the same, washing and waxing are overrated, and maintenance is optional. The concept may be, this is money not spent, it is money saved.
Until the check engine light and the rust spots start to appear.
Long Run Strategy
As people we often do similar things with our technology products, our appliances, our homes, and even our health. We use and consume based on a short-run game.
In business, we can cut corners, save money, remove safety equipment, maintenance less, and push harder. In the short run there may be less expense, but are you doing it for the short-run game?
A couple of pennies saved may mean dollars wasted.
The long run strategy is what seems to make the most sense. Throwing away the slightly used to replace with new, just because you can, is an option. It is also a short-run game.
-DEG
“Ooh, I want to tell you, it’s a long run” Eagles (1979)
Dennis E. Gilbert is a business consultant, speaker (CSPTM), and culture expert. He is a five-time author and the founder of Appreciative Strategies, LLC. His business focuses on positive human performance improvement solutions through Appreciative Strategies®. Reach him through his website at Dennis-Gilbert.com or by calling +1 646.546.5553.
