Adopt a Fresh Take on the Recession

One thing this recession can provide executives is more time. Typically the pace of business slows during a recession so it creates opportunity for dialogue and reflection. This gives business leaders an opportunity to adopt a "fresh take."

Adopting a fresh take is what John Chambers, CEO of Cisco Systems, is seeking to do. Since its founding in 1984, Cisco has endured six recessions (including the current global downturn). As Chambers told BBC News, the dotcom bust of 2001 was a very serious threat. "[Customers] were gone," said Chambers. "We went from 70% annual growth to minus 45%."

As before, Chambers is working to ensure that his company will emerge stronger from this recession than before. Cisco's recent purchase of Pure Digital Technologies (maker of the Flip camera) opens the personal digital video market. Cisco is also offering a new videoconference application, Telepresence. In short, Cisco is looking for new opportunities in new places, a process that requires a fresh outlook.

Having such an outlook does not happen by accident. You need to discipline yourself to adopt new and different perspectives. First, you need to assess where you stand now and in the short term. With acknowledgment to the 4Ps offered by the marketing thought leader, Philip Kotler, I propose three questions framed around three words each beginning with the letter P:

Do our products continue to meet customer needs? Product development for most businesses is a continuum. You never stop developing and refining your offerings. But as Cisco has done, you need to ask yourself what other businesses you might enter or exit. Reducing the number of products in order to focus on core products is a strategy, as is doing the opposite. Talk to your customers about how you might serve them better. But don't take their word as the final one. After all, as Henry Ford famously opined, "If I had asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse." You need to lead the development process.

Do our processes ensure that we can meet those needs? Now is the time to turn your creative types loose to optimize design, development, operations and customer service. Give them the opportunity to streamline processes. Look to take out the steps that may satisfy internal requirements but add nothing to product or service value.

Do we have the right people in place to fulfill those needs? Look for opportunities to put up-and-comers in positions of greater responsibility. Give them the authority they need to develop new products or redesign new processes. Managers stay awake nights worrying if they have right people in place — so take this opportunity to find out.

Looking at your business in new ways will not necessarily save it. If you are on the wrong side of the business cycle, as some manufacturers, newspapers and television stations have found themselves, your business will not survive as is. It will need to be redesigned completely. And even then there are no guarantees.

Even businesses that will survive must find new ways to meet customer needs. That is why adopting a fresh take approach is vital to emerging from this severe recession. Now is an opportunity to refocus yourself and your business on what you do well — and could do better.