It’s only the last week of August and Starbucks is already in full marketing mode with the early launch of its popular menu of Pumpkin Spice Lattes items (apparently the cool folks just call them PSLs so that’s what I will use in this blog).

Think about this: In 2024, people on vacation at the beach can Uber Eats their PSL drinks directly to their portable cabana. Who would have thought it?

The PSLs are a significant part of the Starbucks seasonal line up and given the recent organizational and Wall Street turmoil surrounding the surprise exit of the CEO after less than 2 years, the company is counting on big-time revenues in an attempt to turn around its sagging stock price performance. While Starbucks doesn’t publicly release individual product sales data, there are many analyst reports out there that indicate the PSL portfolio will account for up to $2 billion of the overall $36 billion of top-line revenue.

One of the fist things I share with participants of an immersive high potential leader business acumen program is the following: The reason you are here is because you are very good at your job and your company sees potential in you. However, what got you here will not get you there and as you advance in your careers, you are going to be paid more money to make harder decisions with less data. Don’t get caught up in analysis paralysis!

Inevitably, at the end of the program participants will share that I was right and that one of the hardest things to learn is to not get caught in the weeds.

After one of the programs I delivered this week, one of the participants shared an interesting insight; “I took your advice and I overcame my analysis paralysis habit by being aggressively prepared for the simulation round, our goals and objectives, and making a commitment to take action and make the best decisions quicker and with more confidence…and it worked!

The conversation prompted me to think about some best practices needed to be more productive in the real world of business and the differences between aggressive preparation and being stuck in analysis paralysis.

In thinking about it, aggressive preparation and analysis paralysis represent two distinct and quite opposite approaches to addressing tasks and decision-making processes.

Many of the blogs I write are based on real-world content that Advantexe is creating for our global clients. This week, we are launching a brand-new business acumen simulation on the topic of devaluation. The reason we are building this simulation is to help global leaders understand what devaluation is and what they can do about it in the short term and long term. In the world of global macroeconomics, there are uncontrollables like inflation and there are controllables like interest rates and devaluation. Understanding these terms and impacts provides a stronger base of business acumen skills.

I’ve taken the best excerpts of the content to share with you in this blog.

What is Devaluation?

Devaluation is a deliberate downward adjustment of a country's currency value relative to another currency, group of currencies, or standard such as precious metals like gold and silver.

This is typically done by the country's government or central bank and can occur for various reasons, such as improving the country's trade balance by making exports cheaper and imports more expensive, addressing trade imbalances, or responding to economic pressures.

Devaluation is not a friend of businesses that are trying to expand and grow in a region whose government is trying to use devaluation as a way to stabilize the economy.

I had an interesting conversation with a prospective new client this week. Someone I have never spoken with before but from an industry (process manufacturing) we know a lot about. What was interesting about the conversation was that this potential client wants to take a radical new approach toward developing the future leaders of her company. She shared her bold vision with me, and I asked her if it was okay to include it in a blog, and she agreed.

It’s a funny statement that made me laugh out loud. Read it again. “At least we know where we are not okay.” It was a statement made by a group of participants going through a sophisticated business acumen simulation after receiving their results from the first year of running their business.

In this situation, the group of high-potential leaders chose a business strategy and executed that strategy through operational decisions. Unfortunately, their actual results compared to their forecasted results were not very good. They completely misread the market and two of their competitors undercut them on price. As a result, revenue, profits, and cash flows were negatively impacted.

After analyzing the results and assessing the market, they said it, “At least we know where we are not okay.” It was a mature, profound statement and got me thinking about the lessons one could learn from this approach.

Here are five things leaders can do when they know their mistakes and can identify and prioritize the short-term and long-term fixes.