Here’s an interesting – and crucial – question to ponder: Are companies being held hostage by the stagnant economy? Or, are companies holding themselves hostage in a stagnant economy?
I’m out in the marketplace each and every day, so I know it’s rough out there; and, without doubt, the business environment today is uncertain and unacceptable.
But, despite the shaky macro and micro conditions, I believe that too many companies are running scared, operating out of fear, and gripped by self-paralysis. In short, they’re letting the poor economy spook them and undermine their performance and potential.
10 Ways That Companies Are Hurting Themselves Today
Indeed, here are 10 ways that frightened enterprises are slicing into their top and bottom lines and sabotaging their future:
- Deep budget cuts
- Crucial initiatives deferred
- Key projects eliminated
- Short-sighted vendor consolidation
- Imprudent vendor cuts
- Important product launches put on hold
- Hiring freezes
- Salary freezes
- Curtailed R&D / innovation
- Disruptive organizational changes
When companies embrace this reactive and anxious behavior, the results are self-defeating, and a negative cycle takes hold. To be perfectly blunt about it, from my perspective, you put your business at risk the moment that quality becomes less urgent and innovation fades.
It’s Important To Manage Well in Good and Bad Times
So, before taking any of the 10 drastic steps listed above, it’s important to ask yourself three things, and each of the responses require a good deal of introspection and honesty.
- First, when have you ever had an unlimited budget?
- Second, when has your business ever been risk-free?
- And third, when have sound controls and solid efficiencies not been essential to your company?
I bet the answers to all three questions are “never.”And that’s just the point.
We’re supposed to manage well – and carefully – in good and bad times alike.
Better controls, smart resource allocation, innovation, measurement, and accountability – these critical variables are absolutely mandatory in every single business cycle.
Which brings us to today’s very rugged economy. Yes, it’s gut wrenching; there’s no denying that. But if we’ve been truly focused on our respective companies each and every quarter – before and after the financial meltdown of 2008 – should the messy economic conditions in which we currently find ourselves be a gating factor in terms of moving our companies ahead?
I say “no.”
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Opportunities For Small- and Medium-Sized Businesses
And I see opportunity – especially for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMB’s) right now.
These workhorses of the economy have always supported their Fortune 100 / 500 counterparts. But today, as the beleaguered behemoth enterprises are forced to streamline their corporate infrastructure, their reliance on small- and medium-sized businesses has grown even more intense. The reason for this increased dependence? Despite the big slim down in corporate America, there is still mounds and mounds of work to be done, and well-run SMB’s are getting calls from over-stretched big-company executives seeking assistance.
Quality Must Remain the Top Priority
No matter what size your company is today, however, or how inhospitable the economic climate eventually becomes, quality must remain the very top business priority. If you look closely at what quality really means, you’ll see that it’s a necessary guideline or standard. And it’s a process that encompasses methods, values, practices, concepts, and culture. But it’s not a simple equation or formula, or a step-by-step procedure filled with rules and do’s and don’ts.
On a day-to-day basis, quality defines your company’s degree of excellence, and it reinforces your market differentiation. Put another way, quality helps you manage your revenues, costs, compliance and customer satisfaction.
Everyone has to be leaner and better in this economy; but if you’re focusing on quality, leaner and better will translate into smarter, cleverer, and more resourceful – it doesn’t have to mean less. And, if you’re truly devoted to quality, then you’ll implement quality assurance programs to monitor and evaluate your company’s path to distinction.
Loyal Customers – The Ultimate Benchmark of
Success in Any Economy
Dedicated quality efforts almost always result in loyal customers – the ultimate benchmark of success in this, or any other, economy.
Loyal customers add much-needed predictability to your business; they sustain your revenues, even in perilous times; and they provide you with clear, honest feedback, regardless of how murky the marketplace appears to be.
So attracting – and holding – loyal customers by ratcheting up quality processes and programs is one of the most constructive ways to keep your company together, prosper in an up economy, and withstand the negative inertia in order to grow during a down economy.
Swimming Side by Side With Your Best Customers
My best counsel, then, as the undertow of the current market tries to pull your company down under the punishing waves, is to swim side by side with your best customers.
That means:
- Be ahead of your customers’ needs.
- Choose the right customers to retain.
- And always deliver what you promise.
It’s not as easy as it sounds, but it can – and must – be done, if you really want to expand, enrich and enhance your company in this unprecedented business cycle.
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