Company Course Change Doesn’t Happen On Its Own

The global economic crisis has many business owners fearful of becoming collateral damage. Your Company Vision and Plans may no longer be realistic because of economic factors beyond your control, but this doesn’t have to mean failure. TAB uses Strategic Business Leadership® (SBL), a process that calls for your company to “Turn the Wheel”, typically performed once a year. But right now, it may not be enough to do it annually. Strategic and tactical refocus on your Company Vision, SWOT Statements that identify the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats of your company, as well as your Company Plans, will allow you to make course changes that get you through the tough times and help you achieve business success.

A Company Vision is long term, but economic challenges may warrant redefining what’s realistically attainable in the long-term. It is common during economically challenging times to identify significant changes in your SWOT Statements. If you never put your SWOT Statements in writing, this is the time to do it. Your Plans will likely have to be revised based upon what is identified by your SWOT Statements. Panic and knee jerk reactions spell disaster; put it in writing and know what you’re up against and what you’ve got to fight back with.

Of course, a revised Company Vision Statement means revised Company Plans and you want to focus on creating plans around Critical Success Factors that will help you in the short-term with business improvement when you are facing economic challenges. Use your Competitive Edge Strengths for support and turn the economic threat into an opportunity for a new definition of success. The economy is an obvious threat that is not within your control. But, you can control how your company responds to it.

For some, course changes will include what costs to cut and what deals to offer. Get creative, such as offering a discount to first-time buyers or, if yours is a technology company, offer customers extra features for free rather than slashing prices.
Remember, it’s a mistake to cut back sales efforts during a recession. And, don’t try to copy someone else’s business model—you don’t know what part of that model created the success. If it were that easy to replicate a winning model, Starbucks never would have stayed on top of the game for so long.

Before making course changes, consider the following:

• What is the evidence urging the change?
• What are the intended results and measures?
• What challenges can I anticipate?
• What have I learned from similar course changes?
• What will affect the greatest change?

Company survival and success during tough times may require radical course changes, but more often, a single or less radical adjustment to your business model can make a world of difference.