October 22, 2009

Recession, Recovery, Growth, BE DiFFERENT

Lets face it, over the last several months there has been much said and written about the latest economic downswing and the challenges it poses for organizational survival. And yours truly has been an active part of that conversation in my blogs, seminars and media interviews. Throughout my commentary, I have advocated that in tough economic times businesses need to clearly articulate a BE DiFFERENT value proposition to their target customers. If they can’t, they will loose customers to their competitors who can, and they will forgo their rights to attracting new new customers as well. The past several months have coughed up evidence to prove that this death spiral continues until the organisation fails, taking its employees and investors with it.

BE DiFFERENT and the specific Practices driving its platform is fundamental to organizational success in ANY economic environment, however.

This must be said NOW as traditional media and bloggers are talking of economic Recovery and of the specific things business should be doing to ensure their company’s are successful transitioning from the downturn. The national newspapers in Canada have ‘experts’ talking about the importance of ‘focusing on the customer’ and ‘knowing their competition’ while others advocate the very real importance of ‘customer referrals to drive the loyalty and growth process. All good Business 101 stuff, but fall woefully short of addressing the crying need for organizations to understand that it is BEING DiFFERENT that creates long term success not merely doing a better job of the basics. The basics are important but they are the table stakes of the game and are not a sucess predictor in any economic environment. As a sidenote, I get offended by authors of their Business 101 material when it is being positioned as the ‘Recovery Recipe’. Simply not true!

And, if the economic cycle continues, I expect to witness more discussion on how businesses should position themselves for growth - the Boom phase - as they merge from recovery.

Come on!
There is no magic formula for surviving a recession.
There is no silver bullet for developing a successful recovery plan.
And there is no prescription for maximizing the benefits inherent in a growth market.

Business success begins with providing VALUE to the people you choose to do business with and capturing their hearts and minds. It continues with giving them a service experience to remember every time they ‘touch’ you. And it ends with doing it in a way that is DiFFERENT than anyone else in your market. If you can’t be remembered for being special, well, I would say the end is only a heart beat away.

The REAL issue for all organizations is that regardless of the economic cycle they are in, if they can’t find a BE DiFFERENT spot for them in their target market they will fail. It’s just that in a recession, death comes quicker as the ineffectiveness of the organization ‘stand raw naked’ in a market with hyper-competition, price sensitivity and customer churn. They are exposed for what they really are - a mediocre business that is basically the same as everyone else competing on price with no real value to offer - and market punishment comes quickly.

The irony here is that many businesses were modestly successful when times were good and inefficiencies could be masked by healthy top line growth. Costs were higher than they should have been, lack of focusing on the right customer segments was forgiven, ineffective business processes were tolerated and dysfunctional corporate acquisitions were lauded as bold strategic moves all on the back of healthy revenue growth.

The simple fact is that the fundamental BE DiFFERENT Practices that I have been speaking about so much since the release of my new book
need to be adopted by any organization PERIOD (if they want to survive, prevail and thrive over the long run that is). And there are principles that that can guide the short term cost cutting requirements of a downturn. The point is with a BE DiFFERENT strategy and long term context for your organization you can take short term measures without getting caught when the economic cycle changes.

If you look at economic cycles as separate events and plan for them accordingly, you will ALWAYS do the wrong thing in a downturn cycle. You will first eliminate costs of ‘low hanging fruit’ and then go after Operations. Good people are let go - OOPS! We need them later. Front line service expenses are reduced - OOPS! Customers are not impressed. Training budgets are slashed - OOPS! people competency takes a time-out. Marketing programs are terminated - OOPS! new Offer enhancements are put on hold. And on it goes.

Executives are now saying that with all the short term thinking they have had to do, they are unprepared for the ‘economic growth wave’. No kidding. The wrong people have been let go. Changes in customer needs have gone unnoticed. Competitor moves have not been watched. All as a result of not having a solid long term BE DiFFERENT strategy to guide short term decision making through the vagaries of the ‘mother economy’.

BE DiFFERENT and get it right the first time. You will sleep at night. Your investors will too. Your employees will feel led. Your customers will feel cared for. Your competitors will feel threatened which will make you sleep even better.

Cheers, Roy Osing

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Posted 10.22.09 at 01:42 am by Roy Osing | Read Comments (0) | Leave a Comment