How to Help Your Busines Thrive in Recessionary Times

How to Help Your Business Thrive in Recessionary Times By Tom Borg ©2006 How is your thinking process going? Are you thinking what the news media wants you to think? “Tough times ahead!” “GM headed towards bankruptcy”. “The End of the World is Near!!” It was a popular quote years ago that went this way “What’s good for General Motors is good for the USA”. There is no way that what GM is experiencing and will probably experience a lot more of is good for the USA – let alone your business or organization. It is no secret the state of Michigan and Ohio’s’s industry and business is in the thick of some difficult times. The word “Recession” may be putting it lightly. It is more of a shifting of the times on a global basis. So, it stands to reason if the times are changing businesses need to change along with them. Or better yet as the great Wayne Gretsky was asked “ How is it you are always where the puck happens to be?” The great hockey player replied, “it’s not that I am always where the puck is as much as I make it a point to always be skating to where I think the puck will be”. So it goes with your company or organization. These are times of great opportunity if we look to see where it is we can shift our business strategies, look for new ways we can anticipate our clients needs and wants. Better yet better ways we can see where our client’s customers needs and wants are going and prepare to help our clients (through our products and services) meet those future needs of their customers. In the best selling book Blue Ocean Strategy the authors W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne explain how most companies subscribe to Red Ocean Strategy rather than Blue Ocean Strategy. Below is listed the basic differences Red Ocean Strategy *Compete in existing market space *Beat the competition *Exploit existing demand *Make the value-cost trade-off *Align the whole system of a firm’s Blue Ocean Strategy *Create uncontested market space *Make the competition irrelevant *Create and capture new demand *Break the value-cost trade-off *Align the whole system of a firm’s activities with its strategic choice of activities in pursuit of differentiation differentiation or low cost and low cost In their book the authors do an excellent job of explaining how to implement the above Blue Ocean Strategy differences. Simply put there are much better ways to deal with the changing economy – one that will put your company on the path to growth and prosperity. So what might be one way we can thrive in the present and future economic climate? We need to look for new ways we can see where our client’s customers needs and wants are going and prepare to help our clients (through our products and services) meet those future needs of their customers.