What we learned from the financial crisis

Business executives can take three key lessons from the financial crisis. First, conditions never reach the level of alarmist media pronouncements. Questions such as, "Is this the end of the capitalist free economy as we know it?" push concern into needless worry and fear among listeners, readers and viewers. In the meantime, audiences come away unsettled, even immobilized, wondering what to do next besides catching tomorrow’s scarecast.

Second, conditions are rarely as good or as bad as we think they are. By putting a caution meter on the extremes, organizations are more likely to top off the rainy day fund during a growth spurt and invest in a new marketing, product or service initiative during a lull. These safeguards run contrary to what most do during such segments of the economic cycle, thereby lifting the high-functioning organization above the crowded, confined space of current thinking.

Third, too much of a good thing eventually goes bad. When there’s too much money available for real estate deals, that sector and everything touching it suffer. With too much focus on profit, your best customers and employees leave you and damage future profitability. With too much information compromising your ability to think clearly, wisdom watches from the sidelines while mistakes are made and the inevitable fall ensues. Instead of American football’s two-minute warning, savvy executives adopt their own personal alert known as the "too much warning."