Last night (2009.03.24) I went to “How managers create and destroy value in times of crisis” presentation. It was held by prof. Nenad Filipovic at Marriott hotel, in Bucharest. Here’s what I’ve learned.
1. Quote: “When the storm comes, some build walls, others build windmills”;
Some the bad times as crisis, some see it as an opportunity;
2. The whole economy might fail if the governments do nothing about this;
3. How can the world economy grow?
a. More population in the production; (by now, via globalization, about the whole world is involved in the process, except, maybe countries in Africa)
b. Be more efficient (have a better organization; in the Western countries the growth in these areas is low; they are already having good productivity levels; there’s not that much that IT can do now);
4. There is a progressive erosion of trust in managers – and that affects productivity; How can one be a leader in times of crisis, when you’re not trusted? (main reason for dying as a firefighter – not trusting the leader);
5. Romania is lucky for not being so successful in the past, but the crisis will affect us too;
6. Immediate effect of crisis: quality of consumer relations suffers;
7. What to do in times of crisis:
a. (most companies do this) Cost-cutting (including by firing personnel);
b. (there should be much more emphasis on this) Fight for revenues.
8. How to get revenues? One solution is not to offer price discounts, but instead offer other types of discounts / bonuses (like three products at the price of two; an extra service); After the crisis, it’s much harder to get the prices up & running, but it’s easy to remove the extra benefit;
9. You should also look for a better business model; Can you do something different or better? Do it! (e.g.: Do cross-selling, sell additional services with your products);
10. There will still be companies after the crisis; Who remains? The best of the industry; Be better than your competitors;
Joke:
“Two men are walking through a forest. Suddenly, they see a tiger in the distance, running towards them. They turn and start running away. But then one of them stops, takes some running shoes from his bag, and starts putting them on.
“What are you doing?” says the other man. “Do you think you will run faster than the tiger with those?”
“I don’t have to run faster than the tiger,” he says. “I just have to run faster than you.””
11. At the end of the day, leadership values is what remains out of a business; Do great leadership;
12. There is not one single recipe for success, but one path to failure is getting the philosophy of victims;
13. Spend time with your people; Get your sleeves up;
14. In a company the best people always have the best opportunities; They are typically the first to leave;
15. People don’t leave their jobs, they leave their bosses;
16. It is not important to be the best at predictions, it is important to react fastest in a time of crisis.
That just about wraps it up.
A great idea, which I need to apply better, is to have a mission statement for any project / web site / company I work with. That’s just great.
All in all, it was a very cerebral presentation, lovely to hear, great ideas.
This is the presentation ready for download: How managers add-destroy value.