Early on in the January/February PM magazine cover story, David Evertsen, author of “Facing the Elephant: Survival Strategies for Meeting Unexpected Challenges Head-on,” offers this assessment for managers: “At some point in your career, each of you will face an ‘elephant’ that no one wants to discuss but is impossible to overlook—something so different, so challenging, so unusual, that you may find little in your professional or personal experience to address it.”

He goes on to share two administrators’ experiences in dealing with local government difficulties and also provides quick snapshots of ways that have been used to find uncollected revenues and avoid unnecessary expenditures in these areas:

• Fleet Maintenance and Fuel Expenses
• Information Technology
• Private-sector Agreements
• Process Improvement
• Purchasing
• Utility Billing.

For more details, read the January/February PM.