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With proper decision-making, crises can be the stepping stone to success. However, if met with indecision and ill-advised choices, things can go downhill rather quickly.
We spoke to a few business leaders and experts and found out these brain-busting choices they had to make in 2023.
Rising global inflation has put a huge strain on company finances, reducing access to essential capital. Morgan Stanley, Twitter, Facebook, and many other major companies have laid off thousands of workers. Just yesterday, Pfizer announced plans to cut 781 jobs in its New Jersey plants.
However, many leaders have learned the hard way that mass layoffs don’t always help company finances. Layoffs can be costly. You’ll have to provide severance packages and unemployment insurance while dealing with reduced productivity and low morale among the remaining teams.
While failure to implement AI means getting left behind, a careless implementation of AI is even worse. In August, newspaper company Gannett faced a cringeworthy public embarrassment when several of its articles, written with an AI tool, went viral for grammar mistakes, repetitive content, and fluff. A CNN report highlighted misplaced facts, names, places, and people in Gannet's papers, including the AZ Central, Florida Today, and the Louisville Courier-Journal.
“The hardest business decision I had to make this year is outsourcing our marketing and social media engagement to a professional digital marketer,” says Mafe Aclado, GM of Coupon Snake. “I learned that employing a skilled professional is worth every penny. The reward of success that comes from spending on those factors that help promote the image of our brand, as well as help better maximize efficiency, makes the spend profitable and totally worth it.”
Occasionally, business leaders have been led to believe that climate change is a “third-world” problem. They have been told that countries north of the globe are safe or could even benefit from a warmer planet with positive effects on agriculture and weather.
However, based on 2023 reports, company assets in the US are severely becoming susceptible to climate change risks. One key finding shows that between now and 2050, businesses could lose $0.45 per dollar of their operating capital due to climate change.
Earlier in the year, shareholders filed close to 540 proposals asking companies to address climate, social, and corporate governance issues. Climate-change-focused resolutions accounted for more than 25% of these shareholder petitions.
It's becoming increasingly difficult to get employees back to the office. Trending internet videos highlight how Gen Z workers want to change: freedom, flexibility, and work-life balance. A great number of them have quit their 9-5 jobs to pursue their hobbies and passions.
“One of my challenging business decisions was asking my teams to return to work after trying a hybrid model,” says Mladen Maksic, CEO of Play Media digital agency.
“The decision was tough since employees could decide which option they preferred more. Because it was their decision and the possibility to exercise their right, I had to think about my decision thoroughly and how to execute it to avoid potential drawbacks.”
“I noticed that my team became more distant and much more task-oriented. Everything seems like a job and not like we're building something together. I didn't want to rush them to come to the office, but I tried to encourage them daily to work more on their ideas and projects.”
2023 might have been the toughest year for business leaders. Following the pandemic and face-to-face with inflation, AI, and other disruptions, business leaders had to make tough decisions. But by studying and learning from these mistakes, great success might be achievable in 2024.
With proper decision-making, crises can be the stepping stone to success. However, if met with indecision and ill-advised choices, things can go downhill rather quickly.
We spoke to a few business leaders and experts and found out these brain-busting choices they had to make in 2023.
Rising global inflation has put a huge strain on company finances, reducing access to essential capital. Morgan Stanley, Twitter, Facebook, and many other major companies have laid off thousands of workers. Just yesterday, Pfizer announced plans to cut 781 jobs in its New Jersey plants.
However, many leaders have learned the hard way that mass layoffs don’t always help company finances. Layoffs can be costly. You’ll have to provide severance packages and unemployment insurance while dealing with reduced productivity and low morale among the remaining teams.
While failure to implement AI means getting left behind, a careless implementation of AI is even worse. In August, newspaper company Gannett faced a cringeworthy public embarrassment when several of its articles, written with an AI tool, went viral for grammar mistakes, repetitive content, and fluff. A CNN report highlighted misplaced facts, names, places, and people in Gannet's papers, including the AZ Central, Florida Today, and the Louisville Courier-Journal.
“The hardest business decision I had to make this year is outsourcing our marketing and social media engagement to a professional digital marketer,” says Mafe Aclado, GM of Coupon Snake. “I learned that employing a skilled professional is worth every penny. The reward of success that comes from spending on those factors that help promote the image of our brand, as well as help better maximize efficiency, makes the spend profitable and totally worth it.”
Occasionally, business leaders have been led to believe that climate change is a “third-world” problem. They have been told that countries north of the globe are safe or could even benefit from a warmer planet with positive effects on agriculture and weather.
However, based on 2023 reports, company assets in the US are severely becoming susceptible to climate change risks. One key finding shows that between now and 2050, businesses could lose $0.45 per dollar of their operating capital due to climate change.
Earlier in the year, shareholders filed close to 540 proposals asking companies to address climate, social, and corporate governance issues. Climate-change-focused resolutions accounted for more than 25% of these shareholder petitions.
It's becoming increasingly difficult to get employees back to the office. Trending internet videos highlight how Gen Z workers want to change: freedom, flexibility, and work-life balance. A great number of them have quit their 9-5 jobs to pursue their hobbies and passions.
“One of my challenging business decisions was asking my teams to return to work after trying a hybrid model,” says Mladen Maksic, CEO of Play Media digital agency.
“The decision was tough since employees could decide which option they preferred more. Because it was their decision and the possibility to exercise their right, I had to think about my decision thoroughly and how to execute it to avoid potential drawbacks.”
“I noticed that my team became more distant and much more task-oriented. Everything seems like a job and not like we're building something together. I didn't want to rush them to come to the office, but I tried to encourage them daily to work more on their ideas and projects.”
2023 might have been the toughest year for business leaders. Following the pandemic and face-to-face with inflation, AI, and other disruptions, business leaders had to make tough decisions. But by studying and learning from these mistakes, great success might be achievable in 2024.
