With 44% of our GDP coming from government spending and multiple programs that slow down progress popping up every day, you cannot help but wonder the purpose.
Business should be the driving force to make peoples’ lives better in our cities. Government should work to assist local businesses to thrive and flourish.
Creating employment and community through commerce is essential to our society and future. No level of government is an entity unto itself, but lately it is starting to feel like they are.
With 44% of our GDP coming from government spending and multiple programs that slow down progress popping up every day, you cannot help but wonder the purpose.
We need more people in government who can execute programs to assist our local businesses. Execution is the ability to turn what we know into what we do, and it ensures that we get where we want to go.
Each level of government should now create new Economic Stimulus Teams or Task Forces that:
- Work to make change happen for local businesses
- Create mechanisms to allow local businesses to access and speed up the change process
- Create decision protocols – have you ever heard the saying that a fast “no” is better than a “maybe”
- Business owners need faster decisions in this dynamic economic climate, not slow bureaucratic thinking
- Are accountable to execute programs that are economic drivers
- Build teams in our communities to make sure programs happen – create employment and commerce for our citizens
- Ensure technical proficiency and eliminate waste and overspending on things that provide no economic benefit.
We are continually hearing from the government about many programs that they want to deliver or are thinking about delivering, but we are not seeing progress.
It is time to get people in place who can move programs and initiatives forward and stop all the chatter. Elections are over and campaigns are finished – we need to get on with moving the ball forward. Other countries are moving at a rapid pace to meet the changing global environment.
We should take a chapter from one of Jack Welch’s books. He led General Electric to record growth around the globe, in multiple markets against brutal competition.
Leadership and picking winners to make things happen is where we need to start this journey. In tough economic times we must find these individuals and provide them the tools to succeed and continually measure our progress. The key right now is to start.
Paul Micucci is a Scarborough business owner.
