2010 will be a much better year than last if businesses take the time for introspection followed by action. There’s been a lot of postmortem done by pundits and writers on how bad things were last year for the economy and what happened to individual companies. Many mistakes were made by the federal government and private sector alike. The feds continue to add to the economic uncertainty with the apparent huge costs to business in the health care bill, and the stimulus spending hasn’t produced much at all. We can’t do too much about that (although I strongly advocate voicing our opinions to Congress), but the business community can do a lot on its own for itself.
Uncertainty has a strange effect on people and companies alike. Many businesses, both large and small, went into reactive mode as the economy soured last year. Too many went into a kind of paralysis and simply lost their focus. Market and government forces were pounding them, and strong leadership was hard to find. That has to stop if there’s to be a recovery. Here are three initial steps every business should follow right now to get back on track for a better year:
1. Take your pulse. As you review last year’s performance, take a hard, critical, dispassionate look at every product, service and process in your company. No sacred cows allowed! Reexamine your vision and mission and make changes if needed (by the way, they’re needed). What should you drop? Or add? Or modify?
2. Understand the business you’re really in. Mont Blanc, for example, makes status symbols that write pretty well, too. I like mine, but in truth it writes no better than my Bic ballpoint. But Mont Blanc knows Bic is not their competition, but other luxury accessory product brands. What do you really do? Do you need to change? Refine? Reinvent?
3. Take a hard look at your workforce. Who’s really engaged in supporting the vision of the company? Who sees their work as simply a paycheck? This recession has helped companies tell the difference. Switch up people and job roles. Eliminate the non-producers and do everything you can to retain, promote and incentivize the people who have proven themselves.
These are only the first steps to take for a better year. I’ll have several more next time, but do these first. It’s a building process, and these are the foundation. I know companies that have done this already and the results surprised them. They did it before the end of last year to get a good start to 2010. Everyone can still do it now.
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