Last week in the WSJ there was a great op-ed piece on the Speech of the Year. It wasn’t delivered by President Bill Clinton or Tim Cook of Apple or insert your favorite orator. It was delivered by the Bank of England’s Andrew Haldane. His thesis in a nutshell was that the complexity of banking regulation was hopelessly inappropriate to be effective.
The article states: “The inspector general of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which adopted the Basel standards in 2004, would report in 2008 that Bear Stearns remained compliant with these rules even as it was about to be rescued.”
And complexity is increasing. As the authors articulate in the article, in the 12 months after Dodd-Frank private companies can expect another 2.2 million hours of annual compliance work.! The conclusion – Financial regulation like so many things in life is far more effective if kept simple.
So next time you look at your product road map, hiring process, key metrics, marketing messaging, sales scripts or key strategic objectives, just ask yourself before you execute – will it survive the impact with reality test?
