By: Naseem Javed


The previous recessions have clearly taught us some very valuable lessons, as this time around, the application of the right game plan may offer you a winning streak. This is how.

Recharge innovation

What better times, when things are slow and getting quiet, as normally in busy booming days, corporations and their senior teams get so convinced of success that they forget all about real innovation? The best ideas of innovation come through depressive, recessionary cycles. What better times to reengineer, redesign and rethink the entire business processes, overall strategies and most importantly the prime business model itself? Most successful corporations are very seriously behind in innovations already and often too complacent with surrounding technology, only to be jolted when attacked overnight by a new innovative wave. Simply put, start innovating today.

Realign marketing

When everyone is in a shock, about what and how all this happened, the customers and clients both scratch their heads and that's possibly the best time to nurture innovative marketing to determine the sharpest and fastest means to get the new marketing messages and products from point A to B. Fill the vacuum with new ideas and new efforts. Ask that innovative team you just organised to help you.

Reposition image

When customers want new solutions they are looking for the best image and powerful identity; today it's all about professionally branded identities and corporate image. Basically no other issue is as important as this one.

Not to be confused with logos and mass advertising, the promotional strategies are in meltdown during recession, and while the old branded guards dwindle down, this also open doors for the new faces to appear, creating immense opportunities for new comers to emerge as the real solution provider. Hold the logo-promotion; fix the brand identity and its image fast while pushing hard as a new warrior on the block.

Rename brands

When most businesses want to ignore or forget you as recession is at that boiling point, where old things get flushed out, old name brands die, and any association with the old identity reminds the customers of failure. Discover the fine art of global scale name branding, and only accept the world-class and Five Star Standard name brands; anything less will simple hurt your sales badly. This time allows your team to walk away quietly from lingering and damaged name brands.

This renaming process can be very rewarding if played under a master strategy, resulting in a hassle-free global name identity. Find the best professional answer to achieve hyper-visibility and proper image positioning to avoid ending up in the eye of the storm.

Retrain staff

When your people are exhausted, fatigued, and disenchanted, train them.

After all at the end of the day, a business is all about people and when the recessionary cycles hit, they hurt everyone. The human resource should always be protected, and what is left of it must be properly nurtured and retained so that it is ready before boom time, all set to burst out through the gates with brand new winning strategies.

No matter how hard, how difficult and how long the process, the fact is, smart businesses must embrace this as a moment to reevaluate and rebuild. This way this bad cycle will not only become a passable transition but also you will discover the great charm in the "R" words.

[20 May 2008 09:13]

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