Bruce S.Berton has, over the last few months, provided us with insights into the working of a buyer’s mind and the issues that could make or break a manufacturing unit. Many exporters have already sought his advice and we invite others to also send in their specific queries, the erudite replies to which we can collectively share and learn from. In this article, Bruce underlines the importance of retrospection and trust to carry forward business…
Now is the time to make the necessary changes in your plans, execute them and put in the necessary supervisory systems.
Remember, now is the time to recognise your mistakes. It is no different than production quality control. You must monitor each operation from the beginning, not at the end.
I guess I could use half this column just listing every catastrophic event that became part of our lives last year.
It is said that you can bury your head in the sand like an ostrich thus becoming totally insular. I have heard people discussing various events that are global in nature and most of them said, “This does not affect me or my business.”
There is a lot of history similar to these current catastrophic events, which would indicate that this is really not new and that everything will eventually fall back into order.
When we look back only as far as our great grandparents, grandparents or parents, who lived their lives at the turn of the century, just think about what was ‘new’ then. The pace of new events has really been mind-boggling. Yet we, as a society, easily lose interest, show little concern and quickly forget some of the most spectacular news media coverage about the highest profile catastrophes.
By the time the following article is published, two or three months of the New Year 2007 by most cultural calendars will have passed. Have you asked yourself the questions?
- How am I doing compared to my plans?
- How am I booked ahead for production?
- Are gross margins being made, or are they being diluted?
- What marketing structure do I have in place, and is it working?
- Are my valued people working smoothly and as a team?
- Have I lived up to my contractual deliveries?
- Is global competition hurting my business?
- What changes I should be making in my plans to take advantage of the market?
After any one of these catastrophes, ‘Chicken Little’ or ‘Asterix the Gaul’ would have yelled excitedly, “The sky is falling, the sky is falling!”
In my humble opinion, the key to maintaining our pillars of strength is TRUST. When we lose trust, the proverbial pin will pop the proverbial balloon, and then maybe the sky WILL fall.
The infrastructure of our whole business world is based on the understanding that what is contracted for will be fulfilled. The word ‘trust’ has many meanings and each one is applicable to all of these events.
We are moving too fast to rely on inexperienced management teams in positions of CEO, COO, or CFO, while they are learning our industry! This applies to both the private sector and public corporations.
How you use trust in doing business must be thought out very carefully. In today’s marketplace, you must enact new safeguards to protect
these trusts.
Your people, your institutions, your professional service providers, your vendors, your customers and all that you hold sacred must be reviewed, and each level should be tested for the safety of your company’s future.
Benchmarks that were used in the past must be scrutinised as to their current validity – are they realistic in this volatile market? The correct answers do not come easily, and it is a never-ending process. Use your common sense and for things you do not know, hire or outsource the people that DO know.
Trust allows for confidence in change, and there is nothing so permanent as change. Detect your problems, correct the problems and then prevent them from happening again.
The sky is always falling, but not all at once! You must build proper shelters so that you will not be hit on the head and you must be able to move quickly if necessary. The path to building a business that can survive the ever-falling skies is one that knows how to delegate TRUST.
In one of the religious books, it says ‘and too, this shall come to pass’; however, you must consistently take knowledgeable steps in order to survive a drizzle of problems, or a sustained hailstorm.
Good luck and good health!
