Call Center Tidbits

During periods of market slow down, the leadership team of a business  need to make choices about how they will react to the future, and the position where they would like to be once the economic down turn ease and the market begins to bounce back to what it was before.

By modifying their perspective and strategy planning to have a long term perspective instead of seeing only the production of a short term positive uptick to the profit statement, it is possible to grow a business even during tough economic times. A prerequisite to success in this area, however is that the management in charge are competent leaders and are prepared to look beyond the immediate  actions and work toward positive change for the future. It goes without saying that if the company is in healthy before the downturn begins, combined with good leadership during the period of recession, that company has a better chance of surviving the challenges with not only more efficient processes, but with a greater market share, due mainly to it stepping into the space left by companies who fail in the meantime.

The predisposition toward a long term business growth strategy needs to be well established in managerial thinking  during times of plenty as well as times of hardship and needs to cause the implementation of changes which will be beneficial over a period of a number of years and not only from the short-term stance. The ability to deal with recession in this way is the mark of true leadership competence and the trademark of success.

The use of dismissal is an obvious example of knee-jerk reaction to company failures in a declining market. While it’s immediate effect is to release cash flow into the company which may be sorely needed, the long term effect is that once the recession passes, the company then needs to re-establish the knowledge and experience base that it has just discarded. Across-the-board axing of worker positions may seem like the obvious thing to do, however it will be short-sighted in the long term vision.

Realise that the wider social implications of major redundancies such as those that we are seeing in the international economy at present, actually makes a bear market last longer, as it affects the entire status of a country’s economic infrastructure.

It is far more effective to reduce your cash flow by improving processes than getting rid of staff, particularly if you want to grow during or immediately after a recession. This way you retain the human resource necessary to quickly and effectively respond to opportunities in the market.

The techniques  used by consultants can often help you identify low hanging fruit in this area, and the money thus freed up can be used to fund growth related activities such as buying your competitors stock or developing new market offerings.

The old adage of buy when the market is down is most applicable in this situation, and businesses should be preparing for this situation when the going is good.