GETTING BUSINESS IN PERSPECTIVE
These are un-chartered and challenging times, but right across the country, good managers are planning, managing, innovating, and delivering.
Despite the press reports, business is continuing, goods and services are being delivered, money is being made and deals are being done. We are in business to make money as best we can and to keep our customers satisfied. That is the stuff of British business and the more managers that hold that view, the better the outcome will be for the British economy as a whole.
But this is also not a time for blinkered confidence. Business leaders need to think, plan and act. As in all market conditions, some industry sectors are buoyant and growing and will experience little impact from the current economic turbulence, whilst others will need urgent, thoughtful, innovative and exacting management to survive the challenges.
We are experiencing the equivalent of an economic earthquake – a seismic shift that has caused a rippling tsunami across global markets. But, there is life after earthquakes and tsunamis. So what can we do in our businesses?
The first thing is to accept that the banking pendulum which has swung to the extremes of speculation over recent years will retract to the opposite extremes of conservatism for a time. This will dictate a different way of managing businesses and will require in many cases a re-think of strategy. Not necessarily a bad thing – too many businesses as clearly manifested by the banks, fail to take regular stock of their strategies and refine their management
practices in line with the market conditions around them. What are the new issues facing the business as a result of the current circumstances? Is this a time for defining a new vision for the future? How will the drivers change? Will there be new factors for success? Do we have to manage in a different way? Who are the real movers and shakers in the business and how can they be motivated and supported? Where are there excesses of cost and waste? Can we improve efficiencies and productivity? Can we do things in different ways? Can we forge new relationships for improving products and services or channels to market? Can we acquire others to achieve economies of scale or cost reduction? Should we sell off under-performers, or merge with competitors to ensure longer term strength and success?
Mergers, consolidations, and takeovers must all be on the agenda. This is a time for strong and decisive leadership, a time to revise strategy and manage differently. Those who recognise this and take the time and trouble to rethink and act constructively will survive and will emerge stronger and better off in the longer term.
Ken Graham is the lead advisor on Corporate Strategy at Pace Equity and has advised a wide variety of companies on strategy and business development through 30 years of business and economic cycles.
If you would like to find out more please contact Ken Graham at Pace Equity.
Email: kengraham@paceequity.com
Tel: 01491 577889