At the moment the newspapers seem to be full of gloom and doom articles about the coming recession and even most of the business blogs are talking about recessionary times ahead. The interesting thing about these times is that tightening business markets present the most wonderful opportunities. Whilst your competitors are focussing on maintaining a "batten down the hatches" mentality you may find that they are cutting back on the very things which have given them the competitive edge over time.
There is no doubt that these times call for a close observance of cash flow and expenditure but there is similarly no doubt that focussing on those issues alone can see you running the very real risk of being left behind. In these times businesses which focus purely on financial issues will often forget to deliver the superior quality products and or services which have put them in good stead in the past. Clever use of the resources which you have available to you however, may very well put you in the position of being able to take advantage of the inaction on the part of your competitors. So whilst I would encourage you to keep an eye on the bottom line, I would also encourage you to spend time, effort and resources making sure that you continue to deliver your usual or even higher quality of product and or service and that you spend time, effort and or resources focussing on delivering phenomenal customer service.
As tightening markets start to even out the playing field with respect to price and range, businesses which are able to deliver superior customer service will stand out from the crowd and continue to thrive and prosper. History has repeatedly shown businesses that focus on customer service and on spending time on developing their business in tightening markets often secure a larger market share than they had previously when times were good.
Some businesses won’t survive these times but then again some businesses don’t even survive in good market conditions. There is no doubt that the tightening market will sort the performers from the pretenders. Now is the time to make sure that you and your team can perform and deliver exactly what the client is looking for. Remember if you can survive this market then you will be in the box seat to take advantage of the conditions when they improve.
Businesses which have focussed on cutting expenses, cutting service, cutting product and generally diminishing what they can make available to their clients will have to play catch up from a market share perspective once the business economy improves. If you don’t want to be playing catch up then you need to make sure that you stay in the race now.
Regards, Mark
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Thursday, May 8, 2008
Neuro Linguistic Programming
Neuro-linguistic programming refers to the ecology question. Essentially, that ecology question says “When you are determining which action you should take then there are three ecological questions that you need to ask. They are:
1. Is it good and safe for me?
2. Is it good and safe for others?
3. Is it good and safe for the universe?
This concept can be equally applied to business and, in particular, the way in which we manage teams. In determining the actions that we will take for the direction of the business and the processes that we will adopt in relation to the management of the team, the expectation of the team, the review and performance appraisal of the team, and the direction of the business at large then a similar approach ought to be considered.
In some circles this approach is known as TBL or Triple Bottom Lines. Simply, it is the three P’s they are:
1. Profit
2. People
3. Planet
In essence adopting a direction which keeps in mind those three P’s as the basic and underlying criteria for determining a course of action is a certain why of ensuring not only recognition as an individual leader but recognition for the business as a leader in its field or within the business community generally. So, the simple question can be asked at the fork in the road, the turning point or the critical decision making time and that is:
Is it good for profit?
Is it good for the people?
Is it good for the planet?
If the answer to this triple P question is “Yes” then the direction is an appropriate one to take.
1. Is it good and safe for me?
2. Is it good and safe for others?
3. Is it good and safe for the universe?
This concept can be equally applied to business and, in particular, the way in which we manage teams. In determining the actions that we will take for the direction of the business and the processes that we will adopt in relation to the management of the team, the expectation of the team, the review and performance appraisal of the team, and the direction of the business at large then a similar approach ought to be considered.
In some circles this approach is known as TBL or Triple Bottom Lines. Simply, it is the three P’s they are:
1. Profit
2. People
3. Planet
In essence adopting a direction which keeps in mind those three P’s as the basic and underlying criteria for determining a course of action is a certain why of ensuring not only recognition as an individual leader but recognition for the business as a leader in its field or within the business community generally. So, the simple question can be asked at the fork in the road, the turning point or the critical decision making time and that is:
Is it good for profit?
Is it good for the people?
Is it good for the planet?
If the answer to this triple P question is “Yes” then the direction is an appropriate one to take.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
File Away
Everything that happens in our life, every moment and every person we encounter has an effect on our life. These events and people shape our experiences and those experiences in turn shape who we are. The end result of course is that we bring who we are to what we do and that is as true for those in their own business as it is for anyone else.
Who we are then, affects how we relate. It shapes our perspective on the world, our view. It supports our opinions, our ethos and our strategies. In business, it affects our relationship with clients, team members, suppliers and even fellow business operators.
The truth is not how our experiences and life contents have shaped us as much as it is about how we use that shaping. So it is about looking forward, taking the experiences we have had, the people we have met and the lessons we have learned and actually using all of those to shape our future from this day forward.
Rather than living as a passive player in the game of life, we can take the experience we have (both good and bad) and shape it to make the person we want to be, the business we want to have and the future we desire. This is a process of taking each experience, wringing it out and taking each drop of lesson from it and then using that lesson how we want. In that way we choose to learn from each experience, to grow and develop and that ability will have a profound effect on those who you deal with. In a way there is no longer good and bad experiences, they just all become experiences.
I had a friend tell me how much she hated a certain person’s name because the name reminded her of someone who had betrayed her years before. The lesson my friend took from that experience was to associate the name with the betrayal and to hate the name for evermore.
This was a bad experience which had shaped her future. Perhaps the lesson to have learnt from the experience was to have been careful with trust rather than to dislike a name. This is a classic example of learning to take the very best lesson from an experience and to not allow the experience to shape us in an unhelpful way.
What we can do is to learn to place those experiences in the filing cabinets of our mind and to reach in and use the particular lessons to help us to deal with future hurdles.
Happy filing, Mark
Who we are then, affects how we relate. It shapes our perspective on the world, our view. It supports our opinions, our ethos and our strategies. In business, it affects our relationship with clients, team members, suppliers and even fellow business operators.
The truth is not how our experiences and life contents have shaped us as much as it is about how we use that shaping. So it is about looking forward, taking the experiences we have had, the people we have met and the lessons we have learned and actually using all of those to shape our future from this day forward.
Rather than living as a passive player in the game of life, we can take the experience we have (both good and bad) and shape it to make the person we want to be, the business we want to have and the future we desire. This is a process of taking each experience, wringing it out and taking each drop of lesson from it and then using that lesson how we want. In that way we choose to learn from each experience, to grow and develop and that ability will have a profound effect on those who you deal with. In a way there is no longer good and bad experiences, they just all become experiences.
I had a friend tell me how much she hated a certain person’s name because the name reminded her of someone who had betrayed her years before. The lesson my friend took from that experience was to associate the name with the betrayal and to hate the name for evermore.
This was a bad experience which had shaped her future. Perhaps the lesson to have learnt from the experience was to have been careful with trust rather than to dislike a name. This is a classic example of learning to take the very best lesson from an experience and to not allow the experience to shape us in an unhelpful way.
What we can do is to learn to place those experiences in the filing cabinets of our mind and to reach in and use the particular lessons to help us to deal with future hurdles.
Happy filing, Mark
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
