Source: blogs.havardbusiness.org
Freek Vermeulen, a professor of Strategy at the London Business School, writing in Harvard Business blog, says that he is often asked the question- “What can our company do to survive the downturn?”. According to Vermeulen, the real answer, is “Not a lot”.
Vermeulen says the market is Darwinian: the strongest ones survive. And he likens the economic downturn to Winter in Alaska. Many animals can survive the Spring, Summer and Fall in Alaska, but it is not a great State to be in when the Winter comes.
But, the professor says there are a few survival techniques that firms can adopt, although they are not for the faint hearted. These are:
(1) Open up
(2) Explore new sources of potential revenue
(3) Experiment with bottom up processes to generate such ideas and innovation
He gives an example of a London-based custom-made software company that did precisely that– opened up and organized bottom-up processes and tried something new. And it worked.
Vermeulen reaffirms that it is a brave thing to do. But he concludes with, “Finding the ‘spare parts division’ among your customers might just see you through the downturn”.
