Pssst, want a stock tip that will make you rich?
Okay, here it is: phone a public corporation and ask to speak with the CEO.
If someone tells you that the CEO expects to be busy in meetings for the next six hundred years, call your broker and sell the stock short.
Why? Any company unable to manage an activity that should last an hour is on its way down the financial tubes.
Surveys show that companies waste an average of 20% of their payroll on bad meetings. And thats just the beginning of the problem. Meetings keep people away from the tasks they were hired to perform — tasks that make money for the company and keep the business ahead of the competition.
In fact, if people waste time in meetings, you can conclude that they are doing the wrong thing while they are in a meeting.
Although its true that senior executives spend much of their time in meetings, you can bet that a business is in trouble if their meetings are out of control.
Top executives should use meetings to develop, review, and revise strategy. If they spend their time just talking about stuff, then they are goofing off on the job.
Since bad meetings are...