The Slash and Burn Prune.

Is this an example of good pruning or bad?

Of course the choices weren’t good. Either a severe prune or get yanked out by the roots. So this probably will turn out better for the bush.  Summer will tell.

We are told budgetary cutbacks demand careful pruning. That cuts must be made strategically to ensure that the organization can survive recession as well as prepare for future growth. We are told to move resources towards the areas that are strategically important, cut off dead end projects, make hard decisions.

In other words, do exactly what we should have been doing all along. 

Problem is, if it was that easy then we would have been doing it all along. 

Most budget cutbacks follow a familiar pattern: 

• First – nibbling.  Every department can cut a few percentage points off their budgets without making any strategic decisions about the business.  The survivors have to work a bit harder, maybe pay closer attention to their pencils. If you are lucky they push through some simple efficiency measures. (Tom Peters talks about this a bit here.)
• Second – crown thinning. Start hitting that 5% to 10% level and real work stops happening.  Focus tends to be on supporting existing businesses and dropping ‘unnecessary’ support and development.  Managers and employees are focussed on protecting turf so decisions tend to be made based on existing strategy. If there are obvious dead branches they go – but what well run organization has obvious dead branches of any real size?  No, this round you start going after the shoots. Small development projects that may show promise, but simply don’t have the political support to survive. At first it appears that this has left room for the strongest products to flourish and profits rebound. But without rethinking strategic priorities, the stage has actually been set to loose visionary employees. (They have a clearer picture of lost opportunities than you do.)
• Third – crown raising.  Real strategic decisions have to be made here. Whole divisions go. Product lines get dropped.  The company is focused on the core offering. Funny thing is, managed well, this process could actually strengthen development of tender, young shoots better than above, because the company has gone from trying to survive to looking for salvation. More emphasis is placed on development because there are fewer distracting options.
• Fourth – Call it crowning, slash and burn, last ditch effort, the I simply don’t know approach to pruning.  On the pro side – the bush will get a chance to survive this spring and almost all growth is going to come from new, small shoots. The big branches will offer some foundation but use zero nutrients.  On the con side – there is only one chance for survival. No do-overs. If it survives it will fit the niche that is available to it and feature new, healthier, growth than otherwise. If it was a business all those pruned branches might have brought in needed cash to support the development of something new. Strategically, it was the only option open for this tree. Strategically it may be the only option for your business.

As you and your employees prepare to prune, have you communicated the strategic vision you believe needs to be followed to direct their efforts or left them to find the easiest branches to cut? (Of course, if you got here because you asked Google how to prune a tree – here is the link for you.)