Keep the long term in perspective
Two years ago, few manufacturers — few companies at all, really — were prepared for the recession. But you can prepare for the ascension, however slow and modest it might be, by being smart during these coming months and years.
You might think about diversifying your product lines into other markets, so you aren’t as dependent on single-source customers, and, more generally, diversifying your portfolio. You might also research how to best tap in to loans, grants or tax credits that are available from various levels and departments of federal, state and local government to help increase business during challenging times. And you will likely want to consider your risks, especially over the long term.
“I don’t think you can ever stop learning,” Ferrara says. “Now there are a lot of companies that, either on their own or after being driven to do it by lenders or private equity owners or someone else, are bringing in consultants to help them with turnaround and restructuring.
“But to be successful, you need to continually be looking to any successful business needs in order to continually be focused on improvement and what you can be doing differently to be successful, grow and evolve. If you become complacent, that’s how you die.”
Technology and education, as would be expected, can also play a role in increasing your business. Several experts discussed how the advantage of companies that are owned and operated in the United States is the technology that is developed in the United States. Domestic manufacturers continue to be at the forefront when it comes to utilizing technology in their processes, a trend that will only continue. To ensure that the technology is operated correctly and efficiently, workers should be more educated than they were 40, 20, even 10 years ago, and with so many quality workers still unemployed, there is a deep talent pool from which to hire.
How you handle all of that now might be the difference between a quicker return to profitability and increased production, and the far less appealing option of a long struggle back to respectability and some small sense of comfort in the market.
Most important, though, is to do everything with the long term — and that refers to years and decades, not just months and quarters — in mind.
“I think you’re going to see people continue to be cautious about investing as we move through 2010,” Ferrara says. “They’re going to wait to see some sustainable growth take place moving into 2011, and I really think that, as a result of this recession, you’re going to see businesses continue to be cautious as we move into 2011 and 2012 and going from there.”
