Now Is The Time!!!

I’m starting to feel like we are supposed to be depressed.  Everywhere you look, everyone you talk to, and everything you read, watch and listen to has something else bad to say about newest unemployment statistics, the big 3 U.S. automakers going under (btw, entertainment lawyer Peter Paterno wrote and actually got me thinking in a different direction on my original post regarding Michael Moore’s idea…smart guy that PP), number of foreclosures, suicides, holiday retail sales, CEO’s golden parachute’s, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and a host of other “things that make you say…”.  Well, the New Year is coming-on fast and if you believe everything the fortune tellers are telling us, things are going to get worse everywhere!  Is there any better time to focus on making your business better?  I think not.

Sure, the easiest thing to do in times like these is to institute cost cutting measures.  That certainly doesn’t take much leadership, but will create more morale problems within your ranks.  Looking for ways of cutting waste should be built into your “new company mission” rather than just looking to cut heads, travel, office expenses, etc.  To come out ahead, you should be getting your entire staff involved in “Change” rather than “Duck-n-Cover”.  Richard Murphy, Editor of Fortune Small Business pointed out in a recent Editor’s Letter that history shows a pay-off for those who have seen opportunity and taken risk during economic crisis…”18 of the 30 companies in the Dow Jones Industrial average were launched during economic downturns.”  Here are some places to start looking at and to change in your business.

·        INNOVATION – Teressa Iezzi wrote about Amazon’s new “Frustration-Free Packaging” in her Advertising Age column last week.  Teressa said that “as of early November, Amazon shoppers were able to purchase a selection of toys and electronics packaged in plain, easy-to-open, recyclable boxes.”  Amazon’s new packaging innovation; 1) Reduces “plastic-coated wire ties, printed corrugated package inserts and folding carton materials, PVC blisters (whatever those are), ABS-molded styrene and molded fasteners”, etc…saving Amazon and the manufacturer money, the consumer frustration, and the environment, 2) Makes environmentally conscious consumers feel good about their purchases as well as making them spokespeople for the product, 3) Both Amazon and the manufacturers’ employees and stock holders feel better about their company (again more spokespeople for the product), and more.

·        MARKETING – No matter what business you are in, your focus has probably moved either off your marketing or to ways of cutting marketing costs.  This is a big mistake.  If you have never spent a minute thinking about marketing your brand before, now would be the time to do it.  You don’t have to spend a lot of money to do it.  You can utilize free (or close to it) weapons in your arsenal such as; social media outlets (Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, etc), public relations, emailing your customers, writing a newsletter/blog/twitter, etc, write for a publication, speaking at an event or tradeshow, creating a referral program, creating a frequency program, or even just simple networking.

·        TECHNOLOGY – Find ways to use technology to increase your efficiency and save money.  You must of course do this without losing any human touch to your business.  For example, if you have a large staff and fly them around for meetings all the time, you might want to look into a state-of-the-art teleconference system.  Cisco has a product where you feel like you are sitting in the same room with the people you are meeting with who may be on the other side of the world.  Seriously, you forget they are on a screen.  Maybe something even simpler as providing your assistants (who’ve been with you for a while) with a PDA or computer to take home.  Why companies make it a privilege to work from home is beyond me.

·        TRAINING / DEVELOPING TALENT – In a recent issue of Fortune, author Malcolm Gladwell was interviewed about his new book, Outliers: The Story of Success.  Writer Jennifer Reingold asked Malcolm if people should “be expected to take the issue to developing talent seriously right now, in the middle of a crisis?”  His response was right on!  “Paradoxically, this might be the perfect time.  When it’s easy to make money, you have no incentive to think about development of talent.  Now, you’re forced to.”  I’ve said it before; I’ll say it again, train your people properly and have a manual for doing everything.  The manuals are not to make your staff robots, but to give them a written plan to which to work from.  Hire the right people and they will take care of the rest.

·        WASTE MANAGEMENT PROGRAM –In tuff times, of course you should be looking for ways to cut wasteful spending.  Think about your business in the same way you think about your home, needs versus wants.  It is nice to have a car service to the airport, but driving your own car and even parking in short term parking can cut your ground transportation costs by half on each trip.  Carpool and you just saved double (and the environment, etc).  You can even incentivize your staff to find ways to save the company money.  It is better than people waiting for their jobs to be lost or complaining because they just lost their “business class flying privileges”.  Another example would be simple energy savings at work (florescent light bulbs, putting all electronics and chargers on a single surge protector and turning it off at night and weekends, motion detection light switches, etc).

·        RE-EXAMINE THE 80/20 PRINCIPLE – No matter what it is in our life, it is usually proven that we get 80% of our rewards from 20% of our efforts.  So for instance, 20% of your clients give your company 80% of its profits.  The trick is turning these stats around.  You have to start by looking and most of us don’t bother.  Take a small group of your staff and have them focus on this as a project throughout your company.  Don’t have them just look at profits or productivity, but employee fulfillment, number of hours worked, and even the “wow” factor (is the work your doing wowing your customers).

·        CUSTOMER SERVICE – Although we have learned over the years that the customer is not always right, we certainly have to do everything we can to make our consumers know we care about what they think and how they feel.  Surveys and focus groups are not going to cut it anymore.  You need to not only have a dialogue with your customer on a regular basis (that means get out from behind your desk…or at least on your computer), you also need to observe what they are doing, how they are doing it, and how the best customer service practitioners take care of their consumers.

We could go on forever.  More things to include would be a company logo re-design, website makeover, and lets not forget what our friend Malcolm Gladwell talks about in his new book (Malcolm actually refers to the “10,000 hour rule” which basically says you need to practice something for 10,000 hours before you are any good at it) and we have been hearing since the day we were born, “practice makes perfect”.  So, just as a basketball player practices his or her foul-shot, you should be constantly trying to perfect your craft.  Need help, you can call me (310) 385-2800 or email jimlewi@theagencygroup.com.

Talk to you soon,

Jim

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