Posts Tagged ‘Forbes’
Preparing for Recovery
I recently read a Gartner Insights report provided by Forbes magazine. It provides some data on the outlook for the economy from a number of C-level executives. I read it in light of recent stock market performance. One year graphs of the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 are shown in the MarketWatch charts below. It clearly indicates that while March of this year was not good, it may represent a bottom. More data is needed to call a bottom so we won’t know if that was a true low point for a while yet. However, the signs are encouraging.
I take this data in light of the Gartner Insights report. The report concludes with “Although cutbacks are seen as an inevitable consequence of the current economic recession, many businesses are using this time to formulate strategies that will give them an advantage when revenue growth returns.” It seems apparent from the data provided in this report that essentially all companies have had to reduce headcount. It is appropriate to remember that along with those staff reductions comes a corresponding reduction in skills inventory and experience.
Even when some portion of the staff is eventually replaced, the experience and skills inventory will take years to rebuild. That’s why it is so vital to decouple a company’s operations from as much dependence on that lost skills and experience inventory as possible in preparing for a recovery. There is no substitute for experienced and motivated workers. However, a fact of corporate life is that you probably will never have as much of either as you need. The only hedge is to simplify and automate your workflow as much as possible. Just make sure to simplify them before you automate them.
These ideas may seem obvious yet many companies lose site of these ideas in the day to day struggle for survival. Survival can generate a lot of background noise. I argue that it is now time to stand back, take a deep breath and consider how you will prepare for the upcoming recovery. These decisions will be with you for a long time.
Thanks for stopping by. The referenced Gartner/Forbes report can be found at Preparing for Recovery [Gartner].
Dow Jones Industrial Average Source: MarketWatch (www.marketwatch.com)
S&P 500 Source: MarketWatch (www.marketwatch.com)
