We have to stop NOT doing business!

I know the news is bleak and revenues are down, but why? I am going to argue here that it is because we have chosen to stop doing business. In board rooms across this country including ours, decisions are being made to cut marketing, training, acquisition, travel, conference, new hires, and all kinds of other budgets. We are doing it because everyone is doing it. And because everyone is doing it, we have stopped doing business!

As business leaders we need to start ignoring the news and the “actions” the government is taking or threatening to take. This environment of fear is creating a self fulfilling prophesy of doom and gloom for our economy.

Anyone that has budget and P&L responsibility should be fighting tooth and nail to continue to spend on the things that keep our businesses healthy, like new technologies that improve efficiency, investments in facilities, tools, and training that will improve opportunities to grow our business. We need to continue to support and nurture our most valuable employees or they will leave.

Leaders have an opportunity in this environment to show their true colors by taking actions that show a commitment to their core values. Are you only thinking about the bottom line? Are you cutting the things that are impacting your customers? Or are you continuing your mission to serve your customers even at the expense of maintaining profit margins? Are you choosing to remain standing through this difficult economic time with your greatest asset; your employees?

There are a lot of difficult decisions being made by the leaders of today. When this economic recession starts its recovery, the leaders left standing will not be the ones that cut their most valuable employees. The leaders left standing will be the ones that have core values associated with their customers and employees. The leadership that understands that loyalty from both your customers and employees is essential in the formula for success will be rewarded as the economy recovers. And the economy can only recover if we as leaders continue to do business. Think about it…

Rich Hand

Executive Director of Membership

HDI

Comments

[AG]

Thank you! The company I work for has cut about 80% of our marketing budget (I work in the marketing department), yet they still expect sales and revenue to remain high. I'm pretty sure that if we stop marketing to people, then they will stop buying from us...so it's a self-fulfilling prophecy. If anything, they should give us more resources to work with so we can increase our market share while competitors have their heads down.