Greg Savage presents "Doom, gloom or opportunity to boom?"

• Setting the strategy and deciding on the goals
  The biggest mistake owners make when a downturn hits, is overreaction…or not reacting at all! Like any business issue, handling a downturn requires planning and strategising. And to do that we have to make some predictions about the future and back our judgment. This segment looks at the three different generic scenarios that every business needs to assess before embarking on a plan to recession-proof the business. Doing too much can harm the structure of your business, and allow competitors to take market share. Doing too little can leave you exposed and vulnerable as revenues drop. Greg will look at these three possibilities and outline practical tactics and strategies for each

• No clear proof of downturn, but uncertainty ahead
• Definite  “slowdown” but not full recession
• Full-on Recession

• Leadership, Communication and Moral
  Never is leadership more important than when the heat is on. Setting the tone, changing long-held mindsets, avoiding panic and other key communication themes for managing teams in a recession 

•  Priority and Time Management
  The way you managed during a boom is going to have to change...fast. Leading from the front takes on new importance. This segment explains your new key priorities, including sales and performance management and how to lift your personal effectiveness during tough times

• Tough-Minded Consultant Management
  Your consultants don’t like being “micro managed”? Forget about it! One thing for certain is that falling revenues call for a rapid reversion to tried and tested activity management strategies. What are the key ratios we should be tracking? What’s an acceptable KPI for success in down times?  How do we “backwards plan” a consultants working-week to guarantee profitable billings? You cannot manage what you don’t measure, and sadly the 5-year boom we have been through has weakened the rigor of our management skills. This segment could save your business!

• Hiring and people management
  Recessions are a great time for adding great people. How to balance cost cutting with internal talent acquisition

• Financial Management
  We have accountants to help us possibly, but at the end of the day, this responsibly is an owner / manager one.  Greg will share his ideas and experience on; intelligent cost control, focusing on cost cuts that don’t harm the business, devising a cash flow management check list, AR and debtors control, designing a recession budget that delivers profit and backwards planning towards a break even, profitable trading and pricing strategy 

• Pricing
  In a downturn your competitors will cut their price. It’s happening already! Your biggest mistake is to panic and follow suit. This segment offers an alternative path including; setting a recession pricing strategy for the business, “parallel pricing” strategies designed for recession protection, and avoiding the “downward pricing spiral” 

• Marketing
  Many owners cut all marketing in a downturn, in some cases turning off the oxygen on sales growth. Marketing spend during a downturn is a subtle art and Greg will offer ideas on marketing to niche opportunities, getting e-marketing savvy, and customer selection strategies 

• Opportunities and benefits
  Fortunately it’s not all doom and gloom, and opportunities during and after a downturn abound – but only for those who are aware enough and nimble enough to take advantage of them as they occur.  This segment shares ideas on improving staffing, driving down long-term costs, picking up market share, refining systems and opportunities for innovation.