Working harder for less -- with less security: How will recovery test your courage?

As we read this article from The Economist about economic recovery in the US, we were reminded of a Q&A that Astra-Zeneca's CEO, David Brennan, led at last year's BioMed Israel Convention. When asked how new regulatory and reimbursement standards would affect pharma companies like AZ, Brennan quipped, "What’s it mean?? Yikes! We have to work harder, invest hundreds of millions more and be satisfied with less certain and more modest returns because of shorter patent life and lower reimbursements.”

What does The Economist say about economic recovery? It says the party is over. It says that the US can't sustain a powerhouse economy with everyone working in plush offices selling financial instruments and get-rich-quick schemes to one another. It says we America has to transform from an import-and-consume to a build-and-export economy.

What's that mean for average Joes like us? Hunker down. Deliver more. Charge less. Think. Learn. Innovate. Build in quality. Be honest about what your products can deliver -- and what they can't. Play to sustain, not just to win.

The article says that turning around the US economy is like turning around a supertanker. We disagree. It's like turning around a giant ant colony whose tunnels have to find a new direction. We can't cross our fingers, wait for the captain the blow the whistle and for hope we can find a new route through the water and without running aground.

Instead, we need the courage to realize that the turnaround starts with each of us. Then, we have to get the message to all of the other inhabitants in our colony that change is what we do — one project, one day, one product at a time.

According to the Economist, the day of reckoning has come. Workers have to face the fact that their work is worth what it's worth -- not what any of us wishes we could be earning. We've certainly faced that fact as consultants (along with nearly everyone else we meet in our profession) and have had to adjust our billing rates downward. Executives have to make do with leaner bonuses. No wonder David Brennan said, "Yikes!"

What will sustain Americans (and others) through this transition? There's a body of research on motivating employees to do quality work in professions that don't pay enough to make workers rich. What does the research say? Instead of appealing to greed or money-motivation, we have to appeal to pride, purpose, community, service, honour. To a sense that we're in this together and can depend on each other. To joy in a mission accomplished and a job well done. To satisfaction that we found a breakthrough solution or made a difference. To courage.

What do you think?

Link to Economist article
http://www.economist.com/businessfinance/displayStory.cfm?story_id=...