Business as Usual?
By Adam Radzik
Consultant to Professional Firms

According to the old folk saying, “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.” The problem is that the economic topography has changed so radically that doing what you’ve always done is guaranteed to spell the end of your business.

The truth is that many things have changed, beginning with the credit situation. The GNP of the United States is about 17 trillion dollars a year. Which industries are dependent on credit? Only the housing industry, the construction industry, the automobile industry, the retail industry and every business that requires credit in order to be able to function! I don’t know the exact number of businesses that are credit-dependent, but my guess is that it is the vast majority of American business. These millions of businesses are being impacted by the onerous difficulties now associated with obtaining credit. The current overreaction of the banking and finance community (which is now bragging about how difficult it is to get a loan from it) will have a negative impact on every American. These financial institutions will also pay a mortal price for their reluctant lending posture, as they only exist for the purpose of lending money. If they do not lend, they will go out of business.

How will it affect your business?

Every single purchaser of your service or product will think five times before making a purchase. Why? Because the available dollars have been dramatically reduced. What this means is that it will take five times as much effort to make a sale. Those companies that are unwilling to devote a herculean effort will simply disappear.

Specifically, what kind of sacrifice does that mean? If you are used to going home at six, start thinking about putting in more effort and going home at eight. If you are used to not working on the weekends, pick Saturday or Sunday as your new workday. If you rarely interact with your clients face to face, change that immediately. If you think your work product will do and you can sneak by, trust me folks, you won’t get by. You will be eliminated from the running.

So how big a project is this? Every department of a company determines the survival of the company. Marketing, selling, providing the actual service, customer service, quality control, accounting, etc., all have to work right. What this means is that in order for the company to survive, every department of the company must get better, must perform better!

I’m talking about more creativity, more resourcefulness, more imagination, fewer mistakes, less duplication, less waste company-wide.

The great thing is that we are nowhere near our maximum potential. Scientists claim that we are at about 10 percent or 15 percent of our full potential. We have a long way to go. The improvements we can make are limitless.

I remember learning about a Toyota assembly plant where there was a concern about the tire receiver standing in the right spot in order to receive the tires that would be placed on the car. To combat the confusion, the shapes of shoes were painted on the floor indicating where the giver of the tires should stand and where the receiver of the tires should stand. The idea saved the plant about $50,000 a year in time.

That is what I am talking about – a constant effort to improve.

If you are working today the way you worked a year ago, you will fire yourself. Bosses should ask every employee, “What are you doing differently today than before?”

Survival is doable, but not without greater commitment, greater effort and greater ingenuity.

Comedy Corner

A young MBA was admiring the longevity of the partnership between Cohen and O’Reilly. “How did you accomplish remaining together for forty-four years?” he asked O’Reilly.

“Well, young man, we made it a habit of going out to lunch once a week. I think that helped.”

“Really? So going to a restaurant together made all the difference?”

“I didn’t say we went to the same restaurant, young man. I can’t stand the sight of Cohen and wouldn’t go out to a restaurant with him if my life depended on it!”