Surface Ripples

Are You Investing For Success?

Right now cash is tight, but with the general falls in business activity, you may have the time for those projects, that you didn’t before.

What could you be doing?

Everyone else is waiting for the recovery, and then they’ll all be playing catch-up at the same time. You could be ahead of the rest.

Here’s what you could be doing:

• Examining what opportunities there are – real and “imagined”. What could you do to prepare to take advantage (luck = preparation + opportunity)? What opportunities could you “engineer” to happen?

• Training staff – doesn’t have to be expensive. You could identify a book on a useful skill, buy a copy for each member of staff (or your “senior team”), agree to read it by a certain date and then meet to discuss how the business could implement the skill or ideas in it.

• Keeping an eye on the talent in the market – if others are retrenching, could you be building your staff strength (yes, I know it increases your costs) so that you’re ready for the good times again?

• Talking to customers - to see what they value about your business and making sure that you keep doing it.

• Increase your business’ profile in the local community - offer some low-cost sponsorship, train people in a skill (if that is possible and safe), provide something that costs you little or nothing but that is needed (e.g. old, unused office furniture for a charity, a van or truck to shift heavier items). People will remember that you were there during the hard times.

We’re all working hard to keep our businesses going, but we also need to “work smart”.

I have spent more than half my life working in different world markets from the most developed to “emerging” economies. With more than 20 years in the world financial services industry running different service, operations and lending businesses, I started my own Performance Management Consultancy and work with individuals, small businesses, charities, quoted companies and academic institutions across the world. An international speaker, trainer, author and fund-raiser, I can be contacted by email . My website provides a full picture of my portfolio of services.

Labels: Crisis Management, Customer Care, Strategy

posted by William Martin @ 17:26