20 Tactics to Survive the Coming Recession

With a looming recession on the horizon, what can your business do differently to survive the economic slowdown?

Here are twenty things you could try. All of these suggestions could work very well during good times, it's just that we seem a little more motivated as the threat increases to our bottom line.

Obviously this isn't a complete list and applicability and circumstances differ in every company.

Here they are (in no particular order.)

1. Re-evaluate employee performance. When times are booming, average and yes, sometimes below average performance is overlooked. When times get tight, you really need to get more done with fewer people.

2. Re-organize activities. Is your company filled with under utilized specialists? Could some positions be combined or tasks be reallocated so that the work previously done by 4 people could be done by three or two? Do your processes require many approvals to complete? Are they all really necessary? Do approvals add control or get in the way?

3. Prioritize. Does your company have a dozen different projects underway? If so, at least half of them will be "pet projects" - whose benefits, if ever realized will end up under the "nice to haves" column. Focus resources and your attention on the "must have" projects and get them done faster.

4. Play offense not defense. You can't "hide in your shell" and wish your way through a recession. What are some things you could be working on now, that will put you in a strategic advantage when the economy improves? Take advantage of your competition, if they've decided to "wilt". A compelling mission can keep everyone focused during dark economic days.

5. If business gets slow, perhaps now is the time to think about re-investing in your employees. Think about professional development courses or certifications (if you can afford it). Better to improve the calibre of your players when they aren't 100% distracted with daily business activities.

6. Make a list of things you should stop doing, and kill initiatives which are delivering questionable (or unmeasurable) value.

7. Improve a process. Pick a poor process and use lean principles to elinimate waste (inventory, time, rework, QA, approvals, transit/travel time, defects). What you should be left with are activities that your customers are willing to pay for! Focus on customer facing processes first (order taking, quotes, returns, service calls).

8. Cross-train. The more flexible your workforce, the better you're able to cope with surges in activities.

9. 5S your workplace.

10. Conduct an inventory cycle count when business is slow.

11. Bring the auditors in "off-cycle" when you can afford to spend time with them, making the audit process less of a burden.

12. Brainstorm how your company will be remarkable. (So different from your competition, that people will be talking about you!)

13. Think about deploying technology strategies that allow people to spend less time in meetings and more time doing projects, tasks. Building an intranet organized by department or line of business fed by RSS feeds, will eliminte those communication meetings that suck up so much time. Try cheap, intuitive, web-based 3rd party project management tools (like Basecamp) to enable groups to communicate better, manage group task lists and auto-communicate progress.

14. Find faster, more effective ways to train employees, customers, suppliers, by learning to use video, instead of replicating one on one meetings, classroom training or worse yet, writing another user manual that no one will read.

15. Visit key customers and suppliers. During tough economic times they may be more receptive to different ways of doing business, new products or services or partnering to reduce friction within your supply chain.

16. Think about that major system upgrade. Your vendors will likely have higher caliber resources available during tough economic times and pricing will never be better. Also, the internal resources needed to really embrace the new system, may be more available now than during booming economic times. You may be able to negotiate deferred payments or beneficial financing during downturns. Better to work out the process and transaction kinks during a slower business cycle.

17. If you're unfamiliar with Web2.0 marketing concepts, buy a Seth Godin book and start a company blog. Show off your company passion for what you do. Demonstrate how you'll make your customers better (or happier or whatever). Provide free value adding information. Begin to establish or reinforce a bond with your customers. Be authentic. (Or if you can't do that, just Don't be Fake!)

18. Find a way to stand out from the crowd. EST yourself. BiggEST, fastEST, coolEST, bEST, cheapEST, hottEST, spicyEST, easiEST, fatEST, thinEST, brightEST, sharpEST or most expensive (costliEST?) in the world. If you have a product or service that stands out, chances are people will start talking. And when people start talking, the word spreads and when the word spreads you begin to draw crowds. And within those crowds, the most passionate people will open their wallets.

19. Experiment like never before. Try lots of new things. Fail often and learn from your mistakes.

20. Find a way to empower your workforce. Ask them for ideas. Listen to them. Tobasco sold more hot sauce when a factory worker suggested making the bottle opening a little bigger! Great ideas are everywhere, waiting to be discovered and developed.

Have I missed some obvious ones? Feel free to add to the list!