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Business Reality Check for Our Tough Economic Environment

Written by: Roger Ingbretsen

Article Overview: In today’s chaotic business environment, all business, big and small, in virtually every sector, must get back to the basics of running lean and mean. It is not business as usual. Things are not normal nor will it ever be back to normal. For many reasons to numerous to mention the business environment is change forever. Provided in this article are a number of bold statements, which if followed can help your organization better survive in the next several years.

Business Reality Check for Our Tough Economic Environment

In today’s chaotic business environment, all business, big and small, in virtually every sector, must get back to the basics of running lean and mean. It is not business as usual. Things are not normal nor will it ever be back to normal. For many reasons to numerous to mention here the business environment is change forever. Provided here are a number of bold statements, which if followed can help your organization better survive in the next several years.

I The real business is all about people – Yours and Theirs!

• Hire the very best. Your entire talent pool is the key to your success.
• Excite that talent and continue to train that talent.
• Personal evaluations are important. They are like exercise – do it once a year and it won’t feel good. The more you do it the better it feels and the better you become – both as an evaluator of people and as the one being evaluated.
• Evaluations should be a coaching experience both to encourage and raise the bar.
• Ask yourself the question, if I lost the top 20% of my organization could I still run my business effectively? Am I truly taking care of my best people?
• Are you still employing the bottom 205%. If so Why?
• If you have very good people they will take care of other people – your customers!

II Understand when to change your business model – Strategy is key!

• How do you make money today?
• How will you make money tomorrow?
• Change is constant and inevitable. Are you anticipating the changes in your industry?
• What is your strategy today?
• What is your evolving strategy for tomorrow?
• Is your strategy clearly understood by all stakeholders?
• If you can give good answers to these questions your in very good shape to beat the competition.

People First – Strategy Second

III Understand wealth creation – There is no excuse for poor business acumen!

· In today’s environment, like quality, good business acumen is a given. If you don’t have it you won’t stay in business. If you’re a public company smart people truly know how well you are doing.

• In today’s environment invest in “Human Intellectual Capital” not buildings.
• Buy people rent buildings.
• Earn real money after taxes it attracts more money.
• Spend your money wisely. Every person in your organization should act like the independent vendor on the street. (I need to make more money than I spend so I can feed my family)

IV Execute every day – This is critical!

• Get done what needs to get done every day.
• You must have the right person in the right job doing the right things at the right time.
• People must not focus on the process, but rather they must focus on what the process is trying to accomplish!
• Everyone must be committed to get the job done…not simply committed to following the process.
• Smart people understand the need for process but more importantly they understand and are committed to making the process a meaningful end to a mean.
• It takes emotional fortitude to install good processes, but then allow great people to be ultimately committed to ensuring the business strategy is carried out.
• At the end of a meeting or the end of the day, write down (communicate) who is committed to do what by when and then follow up to make sure that everyone kept his or her commitment. Customers will always do business with a company that keeps an agreed to commitment.

Your organizations success will depend on executing to the above.

Large-scale shakeouts are taking place in virtually every business sector. The bold are eating the timid. Flourish or perish!

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Article Tags: business basics, business environment, business reality



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My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Re: What I'm reading this weekend - Nov 5, 2010 - Tough to say Yinka - I'm usually working about 25 hours per week - a lot of that is online. For most of these articles I pick them up from my RSS feeds, recommendations from friends, or Twitter posts. I'll do a quick skim of the article and if it looks interesting I'll save it for later to read.
Re: Create your own small business reality show - That's very true. I know I would work harder. But you're right....people like to see other people fail (sad to say) so I'm sure they'd watch it either way. Reality really keeps people interested. I think it's a way for some people to escape their own crazy lives for a while and/or a way to let them know they aren't the only one having a tough time.
Re: Quote of the Day - ?"Just because you come up against a wall - I love this. Thanks Evan for posting. I love this saying also. "Tough times never last, but tough people do."
Re: Kevin. What happened to all others moderators? - Thanks Kevin for your reply, I will be fulfilling my obligation of a moderator from now on. I was going through some rough times in the past months, that was why I was not consistent. Thank God the rough times is gone and i am back. Tough times never last but tough people last.


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