Taking Advantage of Tough Economic Times

As a business owner, you’ve probably re-evaluated your business strategy, cut costs wherever possible and brainstormed ways to increase sales in order to weather the economic storm. However, the tough economy also brings certain advantages that can prepare you for business success once the storm has subsided.

Harvard Business recently published a blog on how you can spin the crisis to your advantage and utilize opportunities to change the organization:

“Howard Stringer knows a thing or two about crises. As a young man, he found himself serving in the U.S. Army in Vietnam and he wasn't even a U.S. citizen. He had been drafted while working for CBS News in New York. So today's global downturn, while not as personally perilous as combat, presents Stringer, now Sir Howard and serving as CEO of Sony, with another crisis. As quoted in The Economist, Stringer said, "When this crisis came along, for me it was a godsend, because I could reorganize the company without having to battle the forces of the status quo." Time will tell if Stringer can effect positive and sustainable changes Sony needs.
Crises provoke disruption. Savvy executives can use them to their advantage to effect change within the organization. The challenge is to frame the crisis as an opportunity, not simply for the executive but for the organization as a whole. In fact, with the organization in flux now is the time for those in the middle, or even on the front lines, to rise up and prove their mettle. Crises such as ours, as my friend Stew Friedman has written, can be opportunities to make good things happen. Framing the crisis is essential.

Focus on the organization. A proposition of leadership is "what does the organization need me to do?" The answer to that question will help a leader focus resources on improvements that need doing as well as dropping things that do not need doing. One benefit is to stop feeding the monster, that is, stop doing things that serve process but not people. Drop the "cover your behind" projects that "make work" rather than make progress.

Focus on customer. Those in the middle have long positioned change initiatives through the voices of their customers. Now is a perfect time to make the changes to products and processes that customers have been asking for. They too may have some time to consult with you; their businesses are impacted too. So use the down time wisely.”

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