Financial superpowers such as the USA, UK, Canada, Japan, etc. are reeling under the heat of intense recession and the rising mercury is taking its toll on jobs and investments. India, which caters to these major outsourcing powerhouses, is also being exposed to the recession wave. Pink slips and cost-cutting have become the routine in organizations here too.

So, what should we do? Wait for the dust to settle? How long will it take?

All one can do is to predict but no certainty can be worked out. As a marketer, I should not wait for things to settle, but instead infuse my focus, energy and wisdom to make things better. How?

The world is reeling under one mantra “MORE FOR LESS.” This is the requirement of the day. If we could study this requirement and come up with strategies, these can act as the ammunition to fight recession. There is a saying, “Attack is the best form of defense.” So, why wait when we know the mantra? Just attack by making strategies around pricing. Instead of cutting jobs and investments, if we can take a cut on our margins, it would work wonders.

I see this as a fight between marketers and recession. If we have the guts to make strategies to provide “More for less,” we can definitely bring back the derailed purchase wagon on track. It would be a win-win situation for both suppliers and buyers. If we can recreate demand, the battle is won.

Murali Krishna
Sr. Manager- Business Development

CommLab believes that recessions are game-changers. It’s when companies that execute well move ahead of those who don’t.

We have taken lot of initiatives so that we not only survive the ill effects of recession, but also to grow and attract new business.

One of such initiatives is that the top team attended Dr. Stephen R. Covey program on “Overcoming Challenges in Today’s Times.”

In this piece, I would like to share some of the learning from the training program. The essence of Dr. Covey’s teachings is that if you apply an inside-out approach in handling recession, it can become a boom.

Let’s have a look at the “inside” of ourselves…

4 Dimensions of Human Personality

Take a reality check whether you are living a principle-centric life. The principles should be in total harmony with the universal laws, trust, respect and timelessness. Sometimes our values do not match the natural laws. We have to create values that are in harmony with universal laws.

Secondly, create a synergistic culture. The top-down autocratic style is obsolete. Today’s knowledge worker age is a different model. The time has come for us to change from Industrial age to information age.

Leadership is NOT about Control

Let’s see the differences.

Once you align your values to the universal laws and create a synergistic culture, it is time for you to help your people to become leaders by helping them find their voice, trust their teams and instituionalize this change in the organization.

Over Coming Ill Effects of Recession – 3 Demensional Approach

1. Personal Greatness: Find your voice (overlap of body, mind, heart and soul)

2. Leadership Greatness: Trust – clear purpose, aligned systems and unleash talent

3. Organizational Greatness: Institutionalize focus and execution – independent of people.

So start from inside-out and conquer recession.

The media is full of news about downsizing and layoffs across the world, especially in USA, Europe and recently in Japan. It is disconcerting, to say the least. Losing one’s job is something which nightmares are made of. From a company’s point of view also it a question of survival.

What about a small Indian company, like CommLab, most of whose customers are in these countries? How do we plan to cope or coping, for that matter?

For us, downsizing is never an option because we consider sacking our employees to cut down costs akin to a family asking some of its members to leave home because there isn’t much on the table! We are conservative and cautious when we take in a person or create a position. Once a person is taken in, he is with us in good times and bad times.

How do we then meet our expenses if the business starts drying up? Well, I remember a scion of a huge conglomerate saying that if we don’t have enough money, we don’t cook costly dishes but subsist on staples. We can have everything we need, if we accept that there are always alternatives. The resistance is therefore more mental and psychological. A manager always traveling first class finds it very difficult to travel second class; but he can, till the company tides over. When the company doesn’t raise the bogey of retrenchment or cuts in salaries, usually the employees show their appreciation by working harder and spending lesser of company’s resources. We can survive longer, if we decide to.

Recession is the best time for a company to get new business because your customers are also looking for ways and means of reducing their expenses. We offer our services at much lesser price than usual because we know that our customers will appreciate it and make good in the days to come. Will you not, if you are in their place?

This is also the best time to do some serious housekeeping – evaluating existing systems and procedures, training employees and a host of other “maintenance” activities which are “important but not urgent”. This is the best time to “sharpen our axes” and be ready for the slump to come to an end.

Business cycles are natural and inevitable. If we accept this fact, our brains can come up with numerous creative ways to survive and subsist during tough times. So recession is good news at CommLab.