siliconindia

Economic Downturn An Opportunity in Disguise

Author: Krishna Murty Yamajala
Vice President and India Center Head, Virtusa
Cycles of booms and busts are phenomena that have affected economic activity throughout the ages, albeit the scale and impact in the last fifty years has been tremendous. During this period, the world's economic activity has seen rapid growth due to a number of factors including rapid industrialization, technology advancement and convergence, increasing portfolio of service industries, and globalization among others. Periods of growth have seen increased business activity, high employment growth rates, and an overall improvement in the peoples' standards of living. On the other side, economic downturn and recession have resulted in contracted economic activity, high unemployment, and a sense of despair among the affected people.

For leaders and managers of organizations, managing during an economic downturn is full of challenges and obstacles, which consume time and energy. Tough economic times are filled with uncertainty that make a recession a horrible period compared to times of high economic growth. For most people it would appear like a zero sum game. However, for those with a creative mindset and ability to catch the bull by the horns, these times are fertile with opportunities. Many consider this an opportunity to focus on your core strengths, fresh thinking, creativity, and innovation. It is an opportunity to strengthen your talent programs, identify weaknesses, and reinvent your company to survive and grow.

For those with the ability and the will to survive, the uncertainties offer not only a chance to look within but also scan for external factors that would turn threats into opportunities.

Getting Your House in Order
Looking across the entire portfolio of activities, including processes, best practices, project management, and business metrics among others, managers will be able to see the amount of waste and inefficiency that the boom period has introduced into the system. Identifying such ineffective means of work will help in streamlining the organization’s as well as that of a team’s processes to a more productive state. Simply ask questions that would be focused more inward and shed light on inefficient and unproductive means of working:
* What is the best way of doing this?
* Can we minimize time and effort by re-using processes or other practices?
* How would the client benefit if we adopt this improved process?
* How can we radically change the way we operate to deliver the solution cost effectively while retaining optimum quality?

This will help the project management team add significant improvement to the quality of their work, better team bonding leading to enhanced motivation levels of team members, and high customer satisfaction due to improved return on their investments. The client's faith and trust in your abilities increase many folds, creating a platform for strong long-term relationship.

All these are possible, if the leaders and managers are able to focus the collective effort of their team members towards common goals and important activities that would make a difference to their clients. When managers are able to mentor and coach their team and enable a nurturing environment where mistakes are tolerated it creates a cascading effect on employee morale and motivation. In such a scenario, employees become passionate about their work and loyal to the organization and their customers. Effective teams are one competitive advantage that is difficult to copy!

External Threats into Opportunities
A new technology with the prospects of gaining customer acceptance sometimes appear to be a threat, as the skill and knowledge to handle it may not be currently available within an organization. Visionary leaders and managers are usually able to proactively work towards adapting to the realities and move towards training their employees in such technologies. For example, adoption and improving of an organization's expertise from open source will reap its benefits if clients seek to reduce their IT budgets. Organizations that have been able to present cost effective ideas and suggestions to their clients have seen their share of clients' IT pie increasing manifold.

The above is an example of the possible threat that a service provider organization may face. There will be many other threats across customer markets, market geographies, and the competitive landscape that can be suitably leveraged to one's advantage. Leaders and managers are required to continuously scan the market, develop insights, and leverage the organizational strength to increase market share and customer's mindshare to gain competitive advantage.

There might be plenty of other things you can, and should, be doing during a downturn to make your organization focused and stay efficient.

* Focus on business priorities and align them with client needs.
* Recognize and reward good talent. Provide opportunities for top talent to shine and rise.
* Do more with less. Reduce waste in effort and time. Improve productivity and efficiency.
* Continue with training and development programs; motivate employees to take on new responsibilities, thereby creating a supply of good talent across a spectrum of skill sets.
* Communicate, communicate... Recession and downturn are the ideal cauldron for rumors to float in and out, instilling uncertainties and fear in the minds of employees. Effective communication programs with team members on the internal happenings provide the right fodder for team bonding and employee trust and loyalty. When seen as an opportunity, an economic recession is a good testing ground for grooming future managers and leaders of the organizations. Good managers are like football coaches who have a wholesome perspective on the happenings in the game, constantly provide feedback on competitive position, and motivate players to work together and function as a single organism.

The current economic and business environment is an ideal opportunity for smart managers to make a difference!
Previous  article
Next article
 
Write your comment now

Email    Password: 
Don't have SiliconIndia account? Sign up    Forgot your password? Reset
  Cancel
Reader's comments(4)
1: From: Mrs. Mary David

This mail may be a surprise to you because you did not give me the permission to do so and neither do you know me but before I tell you about myself I want you to please forgive me for sending this mail without your permission. I am writing this letter in confidence believing that if it is the will of God for you to help me and my family, God almighty will bless and reward you abundantly. I need an honest and trust worthy person like you to entrust this huge transfer project unto.

My name is Mrs. Mary David, The Branch Manager of a Financial Institution. I am a Ghanaian married with 3 kids. I am writing to solicit your assistance in the transfer of US$7,500,000.00 Dollars. This fund is the excess of what my branch in which I am the manager made as profit last year (i.e. 2010 financial year). I have already submitted an annual report for that year to my head office in Accra-Ghana as I have watched with keen interest as they will never know of this excess. I have since, placed this amount of US$7,500,000.00 Dollars on an Escrow Coded account without a beneficiary (Anonymous) to avoid trace.

As an officer of the bank, I cannot be directly connected to this money thus I am impelled to request for your assistance to receive this money into your bank account on my behalf. I agree that 40% of this money will be for you as a foreign partner, in respect to the provision of a foreign account, and 60% would be for me. I do need to stress that there are practically no risk involved in this. It's going to be a bank-to-bank transfer. All I need from you is to stand as the original depositor of this fund so that the fund can be transferred to your account.

If you accept this offer, I will appreciate your timely response to me. This is why and only reason why I contacted you, I am willing to go into partnership investment with you owing to your wealth of experience, So please if you are interested to assist on this venture kindly contact me back for a brief discussion on how to proceed.

All correspondence must be via my private E-mail (dmary4love1@yahoo.fr) for obvious security reasons.

Best regards,
Mrs. Mary David.
Posted by: mary lovely david - Monday 26th, September 2011
2: Yes most of the companies derive strategies beneficial to them but will forget to take into account client's reaction.A purely client oriented approach towards implementing new strategies will definitely help us grow and maintain a good relationship with new and existing clients rather than imposing our terms and conditions on them.Good report sir
Posted by: Sri sai - Friday 27th, March 2009
3: Hallo Sir,

NIce to read your article. Naturally business people must think in advance taking into account all actions that disturbs their goals. The business must be fine tuned according to the prevailing circumstances. Provision for some changes, if need be, must also be included in the planning aspects for all activities concerned. To capitalise the present economic and business environment, there are certain things to be clearly followed, namely, availability of money - preferably own money - and cautious use of money, figuring out the taste and preferences of the customers, quality of our products, strength of the competitors and our own strengths and last but not the least, utiisation of Government policy to a greater extent in order to reach the pinnacle of success.

Dr.M.Govardhana Singh
Posted by: govardhana Singh - Wednesday 18th, March 2009
4: I agree with you that managers have to think smartly now. But most of the time innovation is killed by Organization's senior management who focuses on quick gains rather long term vision . Thats where companies which are not listed have the advantage of investing in long term oppurtunities like R|D and propeitary tool developments to make value differentation. Mere iterating the same thing of being smart and making minor improvements in corners of a room will not refurnish the entire buidling . If later is required we may have to revisit the pillars - business model to bring substantial change . Pls see my blogs http://blogs.siliconindia.com/beyondcommoncritic
Posted by: Rahul Varma - Tuesday 17th, March 2009
More articles
by Kaushal Mehta - Founder & CEO, Motif Inc..
The retail industry is witnessing an increased migration of customers from traditional brick and mortar retail to E-commerce (online retail)...more>>
by Samir Shah - CEO, Zephyr .
You probably do because you are on the phone with them! For all of you working in some technical management capacity here in Silicon Valley,...more>>
by Raj Karamchedu - Chief Operating Officer, Legend Silicon .
These days are a mixed bag for me. Of late I have been considering "doing something bigger and better," in my life, perhaps seriously though...more>>
by Madhavi Vuppalapati - CEO of Prithvi Information Solutions .
IT Services Rise of Tier II companies The Indian IT outsourcing industry is going through very exciting phase in its business life...more>>
by Bhaskar Bakthavatsalu- Country Manager, India and SAARC of Check Point Software Technologies.
Data loss occurs every day through corporate email. In fact, given the sheer number of emails an organization sends every day, data loss inc...more>>