Haris Ahmed, Chicago Consultant: Leadership and Cutting Corners

In all of his years working as a management consultant, Haris Ahmed (Chicago) has seen it all. Having had the privilege to work with various organizations from diverse industries, he has seen organizations fail or businesses on the brink of ‘extinction’ because of poor leadership. This isn’t to say that the organization’s leaders were incompetent or that they were the wrong fit for the job. What he has seen is that leaders, in their desire to help the company at whatever cost, would sometimes resort to taking shortcuts or foregoing a crucial step in strategy execution, to save money.

First off, there is a huge difference between taking steps to manage the company’s finances and regular budget, and cutting corners to the point of overlooking reason, ethics, or safety. In the end, the money you saved would end up being too little for the damage repair that you need to do to contain the problem. Because that’s what cutting corners eventually result in—numerous issues that develops over time, forcing you to spend more time and effort containing the problem than following protocol as you should have done in the first place.

Leaders of organizations, especially startups, are understandably under a lot of pressure but there is no reason strong enough to justify cutting corners, at least in the eyes of Haris Ahmed (Chicago)-based management consulting firm, Pragmatium Consulting, Inc. For him, cutting corners will do more harm than good in the long run.

Where do businesses usually cut corners?

Take a look at each of the departments at your company. How many people does each of these have? Are they trained for the job? These factors alone should already clue you in on whether or not you’ve been cutting corners—or the department heads are doing so without your knowledge or consent.

Letting go of key personnel or forgoing hiring new people (people that have specific skills that you need for a specific task, role, or position) because you want to save on overhead costs is one of the most common areas in businesses that are first to get hit by budget cuts.

Employee safety also often receives the brunt of leaders who are cutting corners. From putting the employees’ health and safety at risk to not providing them with a safe working environment, health insurance, and other related factors, these components that are critical to employee health and safety are overlooked, neglected, or altogether omitted for the sake of saving on costs.

Finally, there’s the Accounting department. Organized bookkeeping will leave little to no room for headaches come audit time, so get a licensed and experienced accountant to handle your books. Your numbers need to be accurate, and while other employees may be good at crunching numbers, their numbers skills may not be up to par with a licensed and experienced accountant. Why risk your financial records, cash flow management, and operational expenses (tracking and monitoring) when you can hire a licensed professional who was trained and educated for the job?

A good leader will never ever put the future of the company and its people at risk—at least not intentionally. And for Haris Ahmed (Chicago), cutting corners is as intentional as it gets.