Certainties in Uncertain Times. (Editor's Note).

If I hear or read the phrases "limited visibility" or "uncertain economy" one more time, I'll scream.

It's not that I don't understand why CEOs keep trotting out these shopworn excuses for a lack of strategy and commitment to specific initiatives in 2002. Being a CEO is never easy, and it's even harder when geopolitical storms blow away quarterly forecasts like so many sheaves of computer paper. Whatever confidence CEOs had in their ability to predict the future has vanished in light of September's tragedy.

And yet every time is a period of "limited visibility" CEOs are paid to measure risk and invest for the future, regardless of how "uncertain" the economy. What counts are the investments made without a crystal ball:

Investments in people: Many CEOs are so preoccupied with the small percentage of workers they've had to let go that they've forgotten about the ones remaining. These CEOs spend their energy and compassion managing the transition for workers who no longer fit their companies' straitened circumstances, but ignore the feelings--and the futures--of the employees who will have to pick up after them. Yet these employees need leadership and compassion, too. They worry about their own jobs, they're working twice as hard to compensate for a downsized staff, and they're not sure you give a damn about them or anything but yourself. Make sure you spend the time and money necessary to make your employees feel valued, well-trained, and productive.

Investments in technology: If the dumbest thing you can do in a downturn is to ignore your people, the second dumbest is to curtail your budget on information technologies. Nothing else offers you the chance to improve customer service, to increase speed-to-market, and to cut working capital as much as the right technology in the right people's hands. Don't prune budgets the same way you prune a hedge--level all the way across. Slashing your IT budget will affect your profits, if not your viability for years to come. Make sure your managers know that you expect them to keep spending on IT in good times and bad, as long it creates competitive advantage.

Investments in customers: Your customers aren't enjoying the downturn any more than you are. They've had to trim staff and budgets, and their markets don't look any rosier than yours. They need help, and plenty of it. Yet too many companies are announcing new "customer service" policies that are little more than transparent attempts to slash costs at the customer's expense. Remind your executives that customers have long memories, and won't soon forget the vendors who put their own interests above those of customers. Push your managers-and yourself--to visit your best customers, and some smaller ones, too.

If anything in this economy is certain, it's this: The last thing your company needs is a CEO who willfully limits his or her own visibility with customers.