It might seem odd to tie trade promotion issues to the current debate about “what is the right amount of government regulation?”, but I saw an interesting survey today that got me thinking…
A few days ago, the GMA SmartBrief on Leadership email feed recapped their survey asking "What's your opinion of the government's decision to increase market regulation after last week's crisis?"
More than 1,170 readers weighed in with the following results:
· The markets have become so complicated that stronger oversight is needed to protect the economy -- 432 votes, 36.9%
· More active regulation is necessary to prevent even more meltdowns -- 266 votes, 22.7%
· Allowing the markets to regulate themselves is more important in the long run to continued growth and creativity in the financial sector -- 216 votes, 18.5%
· It invites too much political involvement in what should be a purely economic activity -- 174 votes, 14.9%
· The downside constraints and expense of regulation will pose even greater burdens on the economy -- 83 votes, 7.1%
Three months ago, SmartBrief on Leadership asked readers a very similar question “Should the Federal Reserve take a more active role in regulating the markets?” with entirely different results:
- 34% said “No, it invites too much political involvement”
- 21% said “Yes, the markets are too complicated”
- 19% said “No, it will place too many constraints on the economy”
- 15% said “No, in the long run its more important to allow for creativity in the financial markets.”
- Only 11% said “Yes, more active regulation is needed to prevent further meltdowns.”
“Interesting…support for regulation has almost doubled in just a few months. Clearly, a sense of urgency has developed that has caused executives to reconsider the case for regulation,” said Eva Schmatz, president of Summus, who conducted the poll for SmartBrief.
So what does this have to do with TPM? In theory, heightened regulation ---- and even more so, a heightened acceptance of regulation --- places business executives on alert to assure that their enterprise is functioning at an efficient and tractable fashion. Look at the reaction public companies took with the introduction of Sarbanes-Oxley legislation. The current crisis, therefore, will not only place burdens on business borrowing practice and availability, but will also tighten their internal operations and oversight.
If your auditing and tracking of TPM is not up to the task, expect the pressures to “get your house in order” to be increasing. The Foodservice University TPM Forum has discussed best practice in this space and during our webinars (archived here). The time to fine-tune (or create) your TPM strategy is here. Don’t wait for the other shoe to drop before you “professionalize” your process and auditing. It could be too late…
“When you fight monsters, be careful you do not become one yourself.”
--- Frederic Bourdin, French Philosopher