Whose Recession Strategy Is the Smartest? | BNET Poll

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  Ian P10/23/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Whose Recession Strategy Is the Smartest? | BNET Poll

  As always in life the right answer is the one that fits your business the best. I make my plans on the facts and conditions that surround my business, not herd think.

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  Bickers10/23/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Whose Recession Strategy Is the Smartest? | BNET Poll

  "Opportunity rides on the back of a crisis" and generally tough times mean that organisations have the opportunity at looking about how they drive efficincy and productivity. From a sales perspective it is a great opportunity to promote counter cyclical investment in projects that will help position your customer for the inevitable return to good times

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  sgayer10/23/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Whose Recession Strategy Is the Smartest? | BNET Poll

  Toyota has the right strategy and that is why they have been so success through the years. This is a time to be focusing on the future and what does that look like for your company. Whenever things get bad the first reaction of most companies is to cut back, lay people of and wait. No this is the time realign yourself so that when the market picks up you are there and ready to complete. You may lay off those people whose skills do not fit in the new order of things, train and retrain the poeple that are of value to the company, teach then new skillsm put in new processes in order to beocme more efficient and effective. The last recession companies laid off, cut back and then when the economy picked up they had to rehire, train, update and therefore fell behind the rest of the world. lets not make the same mistake again.

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  bcmg10/23/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Whose Recession Strategy Is the Smartest? | BNET Poll

  Companies that take this opportunity to really "connect" with their customers and cement relationships by "excellent" customer service will position themselves to be on top of their market when this economy rebounds! Integrity, loyalty, commitment and empathy will go a long way to acheive that end!
  
  HG

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  twanless@...10/23/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Whose Recession Strategy Is the Smartest? | BNET Poll

  When times are tumultuous, you need to put on your creative thinking cap, not your engineer's hat.
  
  So Toyota has the right idea: use the recession to position yourself for the future. But it should be taken farther.
  I believe that most companies should use the recession as an opportunity to ramp up their innovation efforts from the tepid level they are at today. If falling revenues aren't an impetus to radically change your approach, I don't know what is.
  The goal of innovation is not to simply incrementally improve what you have -- that's traditional "this is what we do" thinking -- but to create gamechanging new products or services that are responsive to current and emerging market needs.

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  ozjames7010/23/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Whose Recession Strategy Is the Smartest? | BNET Poll

  While this is a time for organisations to look at what they do and remove superfluous costs, none of these options is my preferred model. This is the ime to streamline processes, remove unneccessary costs and build better customer solutions whatever industry you are in. I use the approach of identifying costs that can quickly be curtailed and reinvested in customer relationships, delivering the best possible services (even set new standards where possible), creating growth on the back of others' cuts and powering into the future. It is also a time to introduce those solutions customers are screaming for and will reinforce your position. If the business is seen to be addressing customers needs in a fair and focused way, customers will stay or come to them. If costs are rational and tied to the business, Bankers will be supportive. And if staff are motivated and kept gainfully employed, money flows in the economy and any downturn will be shorter. Those who have maintained a high level of customer experience and have the loyal resources, will come through as the victors.

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  mja11095210/23/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Whose Recession Strategy Is the Smartest? | BNET Poll

  None of the above, the long term answer is always innovation. Find the opportunity in the changes and act.
  
  Of course there are changes that need to be made relative to the industry, company strengths and weakness, market position etc.

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  Dave4800010/23/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Whose Recession Strategy Is the Smartest? | BNET Poll

  Deaveraging, value-basing, the next discontinuous innovation, task sublimation in products, mass customization, lifetime-value customer segmentation, branding, design, process improvements, invest in growth, find markets that are not depressed--maybe they are the poor, hire talent before they are lost, so who has time to layoff?

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  mikemorrison10/23/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Whose Recession Strategy Is the Smartest? | BNET Poll

  While all of the above will work for some in the short term, for me the strongest strategy is to focus on your customers, ask them their position and work with them to keep them spending on your product or service

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  Devranjan10/23/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Whose Recession Strategy Is the Smartest? | BNET Poll

  The best strategy at difficult times is to connect with existing customers by means of value added services and offerings , who in turn act as brand ambassadors in all times thereby widening the customer base. By existing customers i mean both internal i.e. employees reskilling them and external means clients by provinding improved service offerings thereby re-assuring them at the times of difficulty.

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  trainaid@...10/24/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Whose Recession Strategy Is the Smartest? | BNET Poll

  Entreprenize the business to maximise opportunities and get closer to the customer.
  Innovate to do better, quicker and cheaper.
  JV with staff to retain the best skills and knowledge.
  Manage by scenarios to build a varity of plans to cater for a wide range of possibilities.

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  ShotsyGirl10/24/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Whose Recession Strategy Is the Smartest? | BNET Poll

  I think the people standing in line for handouts have the best strategy. Something for nothing has been working for a long time and will again.

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  mforte213710/24/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Whose Recession Strategy Is the Smartest? | BNET Poll

  The big banks and financial institutions seem to have the best strategy. Hey! The economy is failing. It's your fault but wait.... here's billions of dollars. How do I start one of those? I have gobs of money making schemes that will surely fail.

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  kirbyu10/24/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Whose Recession Strategy Is the Smartest? | BNET Poll

  Our business strategy aligns with Toyota's, however, there is a bit of Google mixed in. We will take the opportunity to work on continuous improvement strategies at the same time as slowing or freezing our hiring practices. The decisions are based on demand and serving our customers. Position yourself to be ready when the ecomony turns around.

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  romarstar10/24/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Whose Recession Strategy Is the Smartest? | BNET Poll

  No wonder Toyota is a great competitor in it's industry; this will lead to operational efficiencies in the long run through front-line innovation.

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  smclary10/24/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Whose Recession Strategy Is the Smartest? | BNET Poll

  Toyota is already highly productive. Merck is a drug co, what "deep" do they cut? Salemen? GM's idea of "eating the competitor" isn't gonna cut it when they are already in over their head before economic turndown. Google is closest, but still not much of a strategy, just laying low. I say GM and Toyota could probably do the best if they'd cut out all the middle men that are tagging on the % to the cost, like distributors and go to a website/style design and straight to dealerships. Take that $1000 cost car that gets tacked on fees up to $20K and sell it for $12! They fly off the lines, regardless of the model! SClary, KC, MO

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  JacquesWerth10/24/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Whose Recession Strategy Is the Smartest? | BNET Poll

  During recessions, most companies cut back on their sales and marketing efforts to a far greater extent than the drop-off in their market's buying activity. Therefore, there is a lot less competition for a little less total market sales volume. Example: During one recession the computer industry???s sales decreased by 34 percent. However, most of the industry's suppliers, i.e., Electronic Components, reduced their sales staffs by over 50 percent.
  
  Those few component manufacturers that maintained their level of sales and marketing saw large sales increases; and they held onto an increased market share after the recession was over. That's the same strategy that Toyota has used to become the worldwide leader in the auto industry.

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  rautdip10/24/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Whose Recession Strategy Is the Smartest? | BNET Poll

  I think it depends on the condition of the company vis a vis the effect of the recession on the company.
  Like Google, it has a huge operation and got a huge pool of talented minds which it cannot afford to loose and hence the strategy of "Freeze hiring and curtail expansion to ride out the storm." is the apt one.
  
  Regds,
  Deep Rawat (rautdip@gmail.com)

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  bojan@...10/27/08 Report as spam
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  RE: Whose Recession Strategy Is the Smartest? | BNET Poll

  Toyota has a long time brewed culture of reinventing itself (in terms of business and managing processes amongst other things) at any crisis or a glimpse of a crisis, or even when things go suspiciously too well (read The Toyota Way, one of the best business books ever).
  
  So whatever path they chose will probably turn out to be the best path.
  
  OTOH I think that improving the skills of idle workers (which probably will mean people doing more than what their job description was) is only a part of their strategy.