The current economic environment will intensify the need to pay attention to sound business management and marketing. Referring back to Peter Drucker’s three phases of business development (innovation, growth, and inertia), the need for innovation becomes a hot issue. Now is the time to get creative about re-inventing a business to survive the challenges of a downturn that has yet to hit bottom.
Creativity often leaves some business owners and managers with an uneasy feeling. It is not always quantitative, linear and repeatable. But it can be employed successfully and safely, if a few guidelines are followed:
1. It is easier to get forgiveness than permission. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes, as all mistakes are not bad. A number of products on which we depend for our daily comfort and productivity arose from errant lab experiments, such as Teflon and Post-It notes. To open yourself up to creativity, one needs to allow yourself to make mistakes. Of course, mistakes resulting from inattention to detail or carelessness rarely have a positive outcome. Apply due diligence before trying something new, and give it a chance.
2. To err is human, but to blame it on someone else is even more human. Owning the outcome of chemical experiments at DuPont and 3M gave us Teflon and Post-It notes because experiments did not offer the expected results. But rather than placing blame and a “Failure” label, positive uses were found for the unexpected substances that created entire markets and vast corporate profits. When your attempts at creative marketing or display don’t render the expected results, look for the other possibilities. How can the results be used profitably?
3. You can’t tell how deep the puddle is until you step in it with your full weight. Budget for creativity, both in funding and stress management resources. Don’t step off into an unknown without either the capital or intestinal fortitude to deal with whatever comes from it. Then let it run to completion.
4. Look for ways to remove organizational roadblocks. Take a close look at how policy, budget, control, consensus, specialization, centralization, recognition systems stifle a creative approach to the economic situation. What processes can be shortened? What steps can be combined or changed in order to be more effective or less time consuming?
5. Try management by positive deviation. In our culture, there is a dominant tendency to focus on what went wrong. Look at the other side of that coin. What has been going well and what can be done to enlarge on that trend?
Keeping a positive attitude can be very difficult in these times. But that positive attitude is where one’s energy comes from. And its presence or absence is apparent to every staff member and customer that comes in the door. A laser-beam focus on the light at the end of the tunnel can lead a business through a downturn. And surviving the downturn makes you stronger and puts your business way ahead of the start-ups that appear at the other end of the tunnel. See you there!
