A Message From Howard
CEOs, Presidents and Business Owners:
Your business success is determined every single day. Business success doesn’t take place because of a good or even a bad marketplace. It takes place because of you. You’re the one that has worked through the difficulties and slogged through the challenges of your business. But one day something happens in your business that…
The past couple of weeks the country has been enveloped in a financial banking crisis.
Congress and the current administration were essentially forced to quickly create and pass a bill to keep money flowing through the banking and financial systems so American business could remain open. Otherwise, the country was threatened with a virtual business standstill. Predictions had business coming to a grinding halt. I can imagine that happening, can you? If the Congress doesn’t soon pass a bill (which it looks like they will), the ability for businesses to borrow money will dry up and effectively shut the country down. Fortunately, it does appear this crisis will be resolved and business isn’t going to stop any time soon.
How did all this happen? It isn’t that one day we woke up and there was a financial crisis. This was years in the making. If we look at the Democrats and the Republicans we can find enough blame to go around for everyone. The people and the government agencies that should have been paying attention just weren’t paying attention. Now we can see the video clips of specific people who sent the warning signal out that this was going to happen, but they weren’t shouting loud enough for most of us to hear.
It always surprises me that these partisan politicians put their own needs before that of the country. This was a complete failure in leadership. The people that were mining the store weren’t paying attention. There were also so many citizens of this country that were wrapped up in the greed of it all that they didn’t even notice they were about to fall off a cliff.
The recent events will be studied and debated for years to come. If only they would have done this or that, it never would have happened. To me, the real lesson here is that none of this needed to happen. But it did happen.
I really think that all business people need to examine what happened and understand the same thing could happen to their business. You can’t have blinders and be in denial about what’s happening in your business. If your business is headed to go over the cliff, don’t go faster so you can get to the cliff sooner.
The human aspect that consistently trips people up is greed. This entire bailout situation was caused by greed. Nothing more. Unscrupulous lenders who wanted to lend money to people who couldn’t pay it back so they could get higher interest rates and more profit. And people themselves who because of their greed were spending more money than they could afford to pay back and buying houses well above their means.
Start to take an objective look at your business. Evaluate whether you are on solid ground or if some of your business practices will eventually cause you to need a bailout.
The only problem is the government isn’t going to bail you out. You need to save yourself and your company. And you need to start today.
On Monday, the stock market took a dive of 777.68 points on news the congressional financial bailout wouldn’t pass. This sent shock waves through Wall Street and the nation as it was assumed the House had the votes in order to pass the bill and send it onto the Senate. There was doom and gloom and news of the sky potentially falling when the stock market opened on Tuesday. But that didn’t happened. Instead, the market rallied back 485.21 points.
The events this week related to the financial crisis contain many lessons that can be applied to business. Today’s lesson for all of us is a familiar one: Never assume.
Change is the operative word these days. Not just in political campaigns. There’s a lot of change happening in our daily lives. Such as the bank you always trusted to be there suddenly has a new name due to the banking collapse. The same has been true with local department stores and your favorite airlines over recent years. Yet people, in general, really like and seek comfort. Knowing and trusting something will always be there when you need it. That’s mostly an assumption these days.
Do you assume with your business too?
You can’t assume customers will always be there. You may have customers for years but if you haven’t paid attention to them and have taken their business for granted, your customers could be talking to your competition and doing business with your competitor instead in the future.
You can’t assume your sales force is doing their job. You need to get frequent sales reports from them to see if they are calling on current customers and making the necessary prospecting calls.
You can’t assume you’ve got it right. You have to look at every aspect of your business from an objective point-of-view and change what needs to be changed.
You can’t assume things will remain status quo. The world is changing and you need to change with it. In fact, these are just a few examples. Look around at your business and take nothing for granted. View your business with fresh eyes and a new perspective.
Don’t assume anything.
Your head is probably swirling right now. Business could be better. The stock market is beyond unpredictable. There’s a presidential election coming up. Credit is tight. The business world appears to be in chaos. Congress is trying to save the financial systems. There are great business lessons here.
As business people, it’s important for all of us never to get too high or too low or to get caught up in the emotion or frenzy of whatever is going on. Balance is the answer.
If you get caught up in the process and get over involved or excited about any situation, you will lose your objectivity and may get very disappointed with the outcome. If you get too low about the situation, you may find it hard to think clearly and take the proper action to resolve the problem.
Whenever something happens, good or bad, the best reaction you can have is to stay neutral to the situation. Observe what is going on and determine your course of action. Clear, unemotional thinking will keep you on top and will keep you from sinking into oblivion during a business crisis, momentary or long term.
Observe the situation. Get the facts. Solve the problem. Go onto the next business issue.
Your clarity and the ability to think circumstances through will help you succeed in any business situation including those swirling around you right now.
