Prepare during good times
Even if your business isn’t in a cyclical industry, chances are you will still experience another economy-related downturn at some point. That’s why you need to prepare your company and your employees for challenging times, even when times are relatively good.
You need to guard against complacency in your work force. Companies can fall into ruts during prosperous times and not even realize it. You don’t want to mess with a good thing, so your primary goal becomes maintaining the status quo. But if you let your business practices run on a treadmill for too long, if you let some slack into your spending and hiring habits, you could set your company up for a fall when market conditions worsen.
“When times are good, you have to resist the urge to become complacent in whatever market has made you successful,” Stenman says. “We’ve seen downturns in the ’80s, in the ’90s and now over the past couple of years.
“Ultimately, what you have to do is resist the urge to become inflated. We believe in being lean and mean — though you can’t take that to such an extreme where you’re working everyone 80 hours a week or anything like that. What you want to be careful about is when there is a need for a cutback, you’re not so bloated that you can’t respond. You don’t want people within your company to develop an irrational exuberance that everything is going to be great forever.”
The acquisition by Heery, which was completed in June 2008, combined with the economic downturn shortly thereafter, reinforced to Stenman the need to build and maintain a long-range company vision that is foundational but also flexible in certain areas.
Stenman says you should never waver from the basic values and principles that make your company a success to begin with. But when it comes to serving your customers and leveraging the talents and skills of your employees, it all comes back to the willingness and ability to adapt.
“The part of your vision that is fixed is what made you good in the first place,” Stenman says. “How you delivered your services, that you didn’t run for cover when the chips were down, that you’re in this business together with your people, that you have a team approach.
“But you also have to have the flexibility and the talent to respond in a diversified marketplace. If a market you serve heats up, you have to have the flexibility and the talent pool to respond and meet those needs. You have to have flexibility in your systems and processes to be successful. But your core, your trustworthiness, your integrity, that never changes.
“Remember that your brand is not a logo. It’s how you do what you do. That is how your clients and customers will remember you.”
How to reach: Barnhart Inc., (858) 385-8200 or www.barnhartinc.com
