The Full Story
Time for Change
The credit crunch means business change is inevitable - good leadership is needed
Difficult Time for Sales
It’s a new but already hackneyed phrase but each of us have developed our own perception (or misconception) of what Credit Crunch means to us. It could be something to fear like a severe downturn, a recession, lack of confidence or a vague feeling that we are approaching a collective unseen business cliff edge.
Do you believe that those who control the economy globally may actually do something different this time to avoid the awful lessons that history teaches us? Will it be the same things in the hope (like Charles Dickens’s Mr Micawber) that something will turn up, or will it be something much more positive like seeing this as a time of momentous change where businesses make permanent and positive alterations to the way they do business?
For those who don't know the Micawber philosohy is: Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen & six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds and six pence, result misery. He is famous for frequently asserting that "something will turn up". His name has become synonymous with someone who lives in hopeful expectation.
How often when situations like this occurred in the past, the easy cost-cutting target of the training budget has been implemented only to find that the company finds it incredibly difficult to meet the inevitable upturn with sufficient trained resources. Instead, the business runs on empty by using up its staff’s good will and loyalty and then needs a stiff dose of medicine from the company doctor.
What better way not to be a victim and to get ready for the upturn that history tells always comes, than to not only maintain the training budget but also, perhaps more crucially, review how to find new ways to do things and ways to take advantage of the opportunities that other less flexible businesses can no longer exploit.
Put like that, is it not a no-brainer to keep yourself and your business resources in good shape? I know a small garage that concentrated on developing their USP of having the best trained and acredited mechanics during some very hard times of late. The recent downturn has brought a new customer base who used to use main dealers but now recognise that his workforce has the same acredited skills but at a lower cost. He didn't rely on the Micawber philosophy! He actively worked on improving his business and is now reaping the benefits.
You Chief Executives could also benefit by commiting to not only changing and adding your business's skill resource but also your own benefit to meet the challenges ahead. Check out Astute Leaders Academy
The author, Philip Norris is Principal Consultant and Managing Director of Norris Management Ltd. In a long and varied career, Phil has been a Programme and Project Manager for high profile projects in the Construction and Transportation fields. In recent years, he has provided much needed support as a management consultant to corporate and SME clients on people - the development of, the management of, team building and the employment of. He is also co-founding Chairman of Astute Leaders Academy for Chief Executives
(A downloadable version of this Article is available in Astute Leaders Downloads in pdf format)
Norris Management Ltd - 19/10/2008