When i was publishing my previous article on How to retain talent I observed something; that commonality exists between the individuals and the corporate thought process, the way they think for a solution and the way they address a given situation.
To compliment this I will elaborate some examples Remember the Global economic crises. What did the big/small corporate did? All of them went for a head reductions without worrying about there future goals/launches, about there market share, competitors moves, strategic positioning of theirs vis-à-vis there competitors.
Companies started reverse engineering for cost cutting. Let me explain, management gave a target to departments/ functions to reduce cost by say 20% now it was the department/ functions head responsibilities to reduce that many head which will help them to achieve the cost cutting target. Doesn’t it sound funny?
In most of the cases company were already having expansion plans and some of them have already invested in expanding in certain technological areas, geographical markets and operations where there performance was far below industry the industry standards. With the wave of head reduction all this expenses turned to sunk cost recovering which is next to impossible and getting back on track with all the previous plans and strategy seems to be a difficult proposition.
As per my school of though if the companies would have invested in technology, human resources, expansion they would have reaped huge benefits today and days to come. But the companies did the opposite way and to retain the status quo it will take years because in business 1 month delay is 1 year behind.
Similarly individuals too took wrong decision during the down time. Stock investors were watching there stocks falling and did nothing, when the stock prices hit the rock bottom prices they simply stayed away from market and exited there holding as soon as the stock price touched there purchase price, fearing that the price may fall any time.
If they would have invested (in the same stock which they were holding) when the stock prices were @ there bottom prices they could have attained a breakeven much before and could have made huge profits.
Most of the investors were scared and didn’t wanted to put there money in any of the risky propositions, investors were sitting on cash but were not willing to invest anywhere, all the money from stock market either moved to bank deposits or lost its value. If they would have shown courage of investing against risk they would have earned huge profits.
On the contrary there was/is no prudent way in which the downturn could have been handled, individuals/ corporates responded in there own way which they felt is the prudent way.
Ken Thompson said “Long-term success is not only determined by how well a company/individual handles a downturn, but also by its foresight in preparing for the next upturn. In the midst of a recession, we are often forced to restructure and control expenses, but those who focus only on the immediate crisis may be left behind when better times return.”
To compliment this I will elaborate some examples Remember the Global economic crises. What did the big/small corporate did? All of them went for a head reductions without worrying about there future goals/launches, about there market share, competitors moves, strategic positioning of theirs vis-à-vis there competitors.
Companies started reverse engineering for cost cutting. Let me explain, management gave a target to departments/ functions to reduce cost by say 20% now it was the department/ functions head responsibilities to reduce that many head which will help them to achieve the cost cutting target. Doesn’t it sound funny?
In most of the cases company were already having expansion plans and some of them have already invested in expanding in certain technological areas, geographical markets and operations where there performance was far below industry the industry standards. With the wave of head reduction all this expenses turned to sunk cost recovering which is next to impossible and getting back on track with all the previous plans and strategy seems to be a difficult proposition.
As per my school of though if the companies would have invested in technology, human resources, expansion they would have reaped huge benefits today and days to come. But the companies did the opposite way and to retain the status quo it will take years because in business 1 month delay is 1 year behind.
Similarly individuals too took wrong decision during the down time. Stock investors were watching there stocks falling and did nothing, when the stock prices hit the rock bottom prices they simply stayed away from market and exited there holding as soon as the stock price touched there purchase price, fearing that the price may fall any time.
If they would have invested (in the same stock which they were holding) when the stock prices were @ there bottom prices they could have attained a breakeven much before and could have made huge profits.
Most of the investors were scared and didn’t wanted to put there money in any of the risky propositions, investors were sitting on cash but were not willing to invest anywhere, all the money from stock market either moved to bank deposits or lost its value. If they would have shown courage of investing against risk they would have earned huge profits.
On the contrary there was/is no prudent way in which the downturn could have been handled, individuals/ corporates responded in there own way which they felt is the prudent way.
Ken Thompson said “Long-term success is not only determined by how well a company/individual handles a downturn, but also by its foresight in preparing for the next upturn. In the midst of a recession, we are often forced to restructure and control expenses, but those who focus only on the immediate crisis may be left behind when better times return.”
Image souce bioteams.com
