Este é o tempo para repensar a estratégia (parte V)

Esta época do ano é sempre boa para algumas arrumações.
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Ao empreender uma delas fui interpelado por um artigo de Ram Charan na revista Fortune de 18 de Fevereiro deste ano: "Ram's Rules".
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"Don't expect the good times to roll for quite some time, says one of the Fortune 500's favorite management gurus. But smart executives can use the downturn to make their companies better, stronger, and faster. Here's how"
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Eis as 4 regras que Ram Charan aconselha a seguir:
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"1. Keep building. When the top line looks shaky and the bottom line worse, the temptation is to go after discretionary spending. Fine - but do not consider product development, innovation, and brand building optional. Sacrificing your future for a slightly more comfortable present is not worth it. If you keep building, you can come back strong."
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"2. Communicate intensively. Get information from where the customer action is, and get it to the operating people - fast. Companies should do so routinely, of course. But they don't. It's counterintuitive but true that when the economy slows down, the pace of decision-making has to speed up, because you can't put off the tough choices anymore. The companies that are readiest to act on solid information are primed to shoot ahead of the business cycle."
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"3. Evaluate your customers. In good times, companies manage the P&L; in bad times, cash and receivables matter more. Therefore, you need to identify your higher-risk, cash-poor customers. You could decide to simply not supply them anymore - that's harsh but sometimes necessary. You don't want to be this decade's Nortel or Lucent, which continued to ship to companies whose ability to pay for equipment, it turned out, was nil. Alternatively, and this helps build good relations, work out a way to keep going - for example, by helping finance purchases or supplying smaller quantities. The point is, a downturn is a very good time to do a quality check on your customers."
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"4. Just say no to across-the-board cuts. By all means cut costs if it makes sense to do so, but make sure there is purpose in how you do it. It may be useful to clean out the metaphorical attic - for example, by pruning your product line. ... The key: If you have to cut costs, don't try to be fair about it. As I have said before, the world does not inflict pain evenly, and you have to deal with that reality."
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