|
 |
| |
Back |
 | WHEN AN ECONOMIC TAILWIND BECOMES A POWERFUL HEADWIND
No country or industry will be unaffected by the worldwide economic meltdown. Companies in every sector will have to raise their game dramatically just to stay in business. So competition for every customer will become increasingly vicious - and a lot of today's corporate champions will wind up as roadkill.
Most firms are at a strategic inflection point - a moment of great peril. Their strategies will either deliver diminishing returns or unravel altogether. A few will seize the moment, and surge to new heights.
As a matter of extreme urgency, you need to ask:
1. Do we really understand what's happening around us ... and to us? Are we really paying attention? Are we scanning a wide horizon and digging deep for facts? Are we facing reality, or seeing what we want to see?
2. Do we have early-warning systems we need to keep monitoring the changes that will affect us? Are we getting new information as fast and regularly as we need to?
3. Can we afford our cost base ... and will we be able to afford it in three, six, or nine months' time? Do we need to make some cuts right now? Do we know what they are?
4. Is our business model right for these times? Are we focusing on the customers who are right for our business, rather than just anyone in view? (By what criteria are they “right”?) Are we delivering the value today's increasingly stingy – and powerful – customers demand, and are we driving that value up? At the same time, are we driving our costs relentlessly down, to keep getting the margins and profits we need?
5. Do we have the team we need to fight tomorrow's battles? Do we know who is critical to our future, and are we doing what’s necessary to keep them and motivate them? Do we know who’s letting us down – and are we dealing with them?
6. Do we know what resources and capabilities we need for the future? Are we building or acquiring them fast enough? Are we investing enough in them? Do we have a sense of what our organization will look like tomorrow, and thus how it will allow us to compete?
7. Are we spending enough time rethinking our organizational arrangements -structures, technologies, processes, alliances, etc? Are we being smart enough – and tough enough – about adjusting them?
8. Do we have bold, well thought through plans for the future? Does our strategy really make sense, or have we fallen in love with our own invention? Is it robust enough to withstand what might come at us? Is it flexible enough to adapt fast when we must?
9. Does everyone on our team know a) what we're dealing with, b) what we need to do about it, and c) their roles?
10. Are we talking to the stakeholders who will influence our future: financiers, suppliers, customers, and others? (Are we as close to them as we need to be in these uncertain times?) If you're not comfortable with them, and they're not comfortable with you, you're asking for trouble!
11. Are we driving forward aggressively, with total awareness of our new circumstances and clarity about what we have to do next ... or are we just hoping for the best and dreaming of a better future?
With the bad news growing worse by the day, there really is no time to waste. The business arena is being radically and rapidly changed. Yesterday's assumptions are out of the window. But moving fast, and confronting the new realities with an open mind, common sense, and infinite creativity can position your company to be one of tomorrow's winners.
|
|
| |
 |
| To The
Top |
| |
|
|
|
|
