Surviving Difficult Times... Part II

Many times, difficult times is not really due to outside or
unforeseen factors, but because of not really doing things on
time. Planning is useless without proper execution.

"Remember that time is money." - Benjamin Franklin

To survive and emerge a winner, your company's products
and services must grow faster and be better than others.

Focus on profitable products, customers, and channels. This
does not mean to take smaller customers for granted; however,
in difficult times, you energy should be more focused. It is not
wise to scatter investments across many initiatives which are
not aligned with the overall business objective. Create new
partner relationships, where senior managers and executives
are responsible for consumer market not just marketing.

To survive the tough times, streamline design processes by
way of making systems more flexible and efficient.

"The customer is the most important part of the production
line." - W. Edwards Deming

Build up your credibility with customers. Credibility plays a
key role in winning customers to your side, retaining them, and
driving them toward loyalty. The better your product or
service, the more customers you have. And the more credible
your product or service, the more satisfied your customers are,
and the better chance you have at gaining their trust and
loyalty.

Still when you can not control the weather, for obvious reasons,
do not let difficult times weigh you down but consider these
tried and tested formulas...

• Address your inefficiences, redundancies, and excessive costs.
• Identify and partner with a potential and profitable customer that has special reasons to be receptive.
• Focus on creating process improvements, with an understanding of customers' real needs and business context.
• Ask your most valued customers to define the new benefits they want. Connect with and satisfy customers more efficiently.
• Take control of your inventory.
• Invest more on technology.

Strengthen your resolve. You can make it if you really want to.

Take note...
"Everything is always impossible before it works. That is
what entrepreneurs are all about -- doing what people have
told them is impossible." - Hunt Greene

Surviving Difficult Times...

If you don't know it yet -- your business is to succeed.

This was why we even went through growth initiatives. Yet
no matter how sharp one may be, in difficult times, having a
sustainable competitive advantage is not enough.

"Innovation is a necessary condition for business success --
but not a sufficient condition for business success."
~ Randall L. Tobias

What does one still need to do then?

Keep on inventing new advantages. Be proactive rather than
reactive. Find new ways to better serve your customers. Do
everything possible to exceed customers' expectations.

Realize that current traditional markets will not guarantee
sales, growth, and profit. They create new markets and new
channels. So, intensify your marketing efforts in terms of reach,
presence, and availability. Strongly consider the market space
-- and not just the market place.

See, satisfying and responding to customer needs are no longer
adequate. Anticipate what's really important to the customer.
Create business solutions and partnering such as unique
customer access, technical know-how, relationship networks,
and a loyal user community.

The ultimate goal is understanding customers' economic issues
and challenges. These allow you to anticipate rather than
respond to customer needs. From being just another supplier,
you become a key economic partner for your customer.

Create growth-based initiatives on traditional tools for
products, factories and personnel. Then create growth-based
initiatives on hidden assets by building long-term and win-win
relationships, competitive market position, and information.

"Business is often about killing your favorite children to allow
others to succeed." - John Harvey-Jones

In trying times specially, sacrifice is needed; and recognizing
the what's, how's and when's as early as possible would prove
crucial.

Do what it takes to outperform, outlast, and outwit your
competition. It is certainly better to be superior and ahead in
your chosen segments, industry, and product category...
not just to survive difficult times but always.

Take note...
"A ship in port is safe, but that's not what ships are built for."
~ Grace Murray Hopper