No surprise I suppose that many companies took the shock of the down-turn to focus on cost-cutting. In What worked in cost cutting—and what’s next? McKinsey’s report of a global survey offers mixed news – yes, plenty of costs were cut, but executives worry about sustaining those cuts and about continuing risks from the sluggish economy. What we don’t know – and probably never will – is the consequences. How many, for example, cut too much, in the wrong areas, and badly damaged their ability to deliver future growth? Some good tips though: Continue reading »
Apr 032010
Apr 142009
It’s hard enough dealing with current difficulties in a strategically sound way, but it’s not helped by actions that are pointless or counter-productive – examples below.
Some of these actions just might be unavoidable if the business is in real danger of collapse, but very few are in such a bad state. It seems most are doing these things for purely symbolic reasons – ‘We must be seen to be taking the problem seriously’ – or else to hold up short-term profitability because of perceived pressure from investors or analysts. Continue reading »
Jan 172009
More (mostly) helpful advice re the downturn from HBR is Seize the advantage in a downturn in which David Rhodes and Daniel Stelter of BCG offer thoughts to stabilize your business and find opportunities … but beware! Continue reading »
Nov 062008
I have just been asked to include a specific extra section on this in the LBS ADP executive course on which I teach, which reminds me it may be useful to many others, so here’s a very short summary Continue reading »
An interesting article in on this topic, which is probably front of mind for quite a few organisations right now, in strategy+business. The article comes up with ‘the frugal growth triangle’, on the working relationships between business units, corporate and shared functions. Unfortunately, Continue reading »
