3. Begin…
Practical steps
Define
the “crisis”.
Develop a strategy
Create a tactical
plan
Do!
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4. Defining..
Defining is:
Looking at each piece part and
understanding what is causing the
crisis..
EXAMPLE: “My business sales shrunk
for the last 3 months”
Defining the problem says:
Look at the distribution model
Look at the product marketing
Look at the pricing model
Contact customers who said “No!” and ask
why?
Etc.
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5. Strategy
Developing a strategy..
Strategy
defined:
“the art of devising or employing
plans toward a goal”
-
Think “Plan”
Merriam-Webster, I. 1996, c1993. Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary. Includes index. (10th ed.). MerriamWebster: Springfield, Mass., U.S.A.
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6. Tactics
Tactics are defined as:
“the art or skill of employing available means
to accomplish an end”
- Think “action”
Merriam-Webster, I. 1996, c1993. Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary. Includes index. (10th ed.). Merriam-Webster:
Springfield, Mass., U.S.A.”
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8. Summary
Overcoming Crisis or reviving a
business can be summed up in
one word:
FOCUS!
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Editor's Notes
When you are in crises… It’s the time to stop and evaluate. What’s important in this evaluation is honesty. It’s also extremely important understand what has caused your crises. Once you’ve identified the “crisis catalyst”. Then correct it!
Keep in mind that it is NOT an appropriate answer to identify your crisis catalyst and “repair” it. Repairing a broken process just allows you to be more efficient in reaching crisis again..
When in crisis, you need to change. Change the “crisis catalyst” and see and measure the results. Positive results mean the change was good. Negative results mean that you need to find another way to change the “crisis catalyst”
Let’s look at the change process..
When your business is in crisis, you must do is to begin to take practical steps.
These practical steps are:
Define the crisis. Think it through and begin to “break it down”. Identify the problem.
Develop a strategy. This is the plan that focuses on your defined crisis.. It’s what needs to be implemented to effect change.
Create a step by step plan.. Ok so you’ve “broken down” the crisis into it’s pieces. You have a plan. Now you need to list the steps to accomplish your plan.
- Do! Well this is obvious… But it’s also the most difficult. Often times this means looking at what you’ve done and throwing a lot of it out. My advice is don’t let your EGO stand in the way of good business decisions.
Defining in a crisis situation is critical. When you are faced with a problem you need to FOCUS. You will hear that word a lot. Focus… Focus means examining every facet of a business and concentrating on things that aren’t working well.
Let’s take an example. Your business is selling coffee beans to coffee shops, and your sales are declining. The first instinct is to say that people aren’t drinking coffee so I better find something else to sell. Before you jump to that conclusion, you need to look at your business and ask questions. You need to begin to ask questions. You go to a customer and ask questions like:
“I noticed that you didn’t order any coffee? Why?” Then listen. You may hear something like price, availability, poor quality, any one of a number of reasons. In this example let’s say that you hear that the price and quality are OK, but you find out that the customer needs to know that his coffee supply will be there each week at 9:00am on Thursdays. You look at your delivery schedule and find out that your deliverys are arriving on any day of the week at 4pm in the afternoon. So now what do you do…. Strategy…
You’ve finished your problem definition. You’ve broken down the pieces and you know that “distribution” is the problem..
Now what?
Develop a plan that directly addresses the problem definition. Then communicate it to your employees. If you are a small business with just one or two employees, begin to “live” your plan.
It’s important to be consistent, don’t communicate a plan and then not follow it. Not following you plan tells your employees that you aren’t serious about change.
Tactics follow strategy in the same way that strategy follows you problem definition.
Tactics are your step by step approach to implementing your strategy and solving the problem. So let’s review.
Definition: Research Says Distribution is our problem in declining coffee sales
Strategy: Develop a consistent Delivery Schedule
Tactics:
Develop a list of customers
Contact customers
Ask preferred deliver time
Resolve any delivery conflicts by suggesting an alternate time
Send a letter confirming delivery schedule
Communicate schedule to works.
Offer an incentive for accomplishing delivery routes “on time”.
Do! You’ve asked your questions, you know the problem, you have a strategy, you know the steps you need to take… So now take them..
Make sense?
In my 20 plus years in business and in watching my own business grow, I can tell you that the key to a successful business is most often FOCUS!
I’ve seen successful companies take on a new product line in a completely different market and FAIL! Why?
Because they lost focus. Key to a overcoming and reviving is going back to the basics and focusing like a lazer beam on what your business is, and shedding anything outside that focus… Re-Learn your business again and concentrate on doing it well…
