I read this excerpt from a story about Mark Hurd (new CEO of HP) with great interest. It reflects exactly the power of ‘framing’ which is setting forth the parameters for your future business, even if you don’t know exactly what the future will hold. We write about this idea in the ‘Entrepreneurial Mindset’.
From an article by Peter Burrows, September 12, 2005:One of his first moves after arriving at HP was to work with his team to set the financial targets they think the company should hit by 2008. From there, he and his lieutenants worked backwards and laid out the metrics for each segment of the company. Those calculations helped them arrive at the 14,500 layoff figure and determine that HP can sustain the $3.5 billion-a-year RD budget they want. With a specific goal three years out, ?you can start thinking about the future with a little less emotion and a little more analytics,? he (Mark Hurd) says.