Status Quo? Is this the right strategy for turbulent economic times?

May 1, 2009

Sherry Hess is vice president of marketing at AWR, bringing with her more than 15 years of EDA experience in domestic and international sales, marketing, support, and managerial expertise. For the majority of her career Sherry served in various positions at Ansoft Corporation including director of European operations and later as vice president of marketing. Before joining Ansoft, Sherry spent two years with Intel Corporation, where she worked in the ASIC Group and developed relationships with companies such as Bell Northern Research and Northern Telecom. Sherry holds a BSEE and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. www.awrcorp.com.

To comment or ask Sherry a question, use the comment link at the bottom of the entry.

Even before a colleague at work shared an article, " Smart Management for Tough Times ," in the March 12 issue of Business Week with me, the conversation in my own head and with peers and colleagues was quite simply this:  Status Quo? Is this the right strategy for turbulent economic times?

In the past, solving customers' problems for the majority of the industry was often just marketing talk, hype and buzz words.  But now solving customer's problems is hip, vogue, topical even.
As a newcomer 10 years ago to an entrenched market, AWR started out from 'Day One' focused on solving customer problems. So customer service is and has always been a significant and serious statement at AWR!

But in today's troubled economic environment it is, or should be, pervasive critical thought across the board in a number of industries, especially in our own microwave & RF niche... which includes the numerous firms in our space ranging from commercial to military contractors, suppliers, and service providers. 

As someone recently said, a healthy dose of paranoia is a positive trait.  Without it, you risk a declining or all together lost business, while with it, you stand to gain and grow market share. Innovate or die, evolve or die, retool, rethink or die?  These are thoughts that occupy my grey matter these days.  One of the most basic lessons of history is that civilizations must continue to grow and expand or ultimately they stagnate and fall. If you’re not moving forward, you’re going backwards.  

How scary is that?  A tough dose of reality!

What is your business philosophy/strategy that’s pushing you to the "next level"? One that has you growing faster than your competitors through this current economic crisis and that will position you to leapfrog them when the economy turns around?  Two snippets that really resonated with me when I read through the Business Week article by Jena McGregor:

"The challenge for many business leaders is figuring out what moves to make now. Whether you see signs of life in the economy or think the worst is yet to come, there's no question that the game has changed for business. The tools managers once used with great success, from how they pay their people to where they seek out new product innovations, are being reevaluated.”

“Smart leaders recognize that they can use this crisis as a catalyst to spark new ways of thinking and doing business.”

So, my question to you is, how do you plan to make the most of our current recessionary environment?  This is the issue that AWR wants to chat about with all of you.

Comments

[Jorge]

I think the status quo began to shift when we elected President Obama. I liked his press conference when he said he would like to see more smart (math-minded) people getting into engineering rather than finance. I'm ready for a return to valuing the sciences and engineering - more innovation, academic acheivement, industry collaboration and new areas of research and development.

[David]

Interesting article Sherry,

I think it is important for company leaders to keep a cool head in this economy. I have seen several cases where the need to tighten the belt was executed with such severity that management may have done more long term harm to their company. Companies clearly need to cut wasteful spending where it exists and work smarter to maintain customer loyalty and hold onto market share, even if their customers are buying less. Reacting (to the point of panic) to the downturn and the need to trim by eliminating critical human resources, killing R&D and devastating marketing budgets hurts future innovation and the ability to sell and support products today. If a company doesn’t have future products or maintain its relationship to current and future customers, I don’t see how it will survive.

In these times, I think it is prudent to carefully evaluate expenses and opportunities. Where opportunities exist, set fear of risk aside and go for it. Where long and short term return on investment is unlikely, walk away. Periodic downturns seem necessary for weeding out the marginal and inefficient (costly) technologies and businesses. I’m afraid, in a panic, some companies are cutting too close to the bone and doing themselves more long term harm than short term good. If the recovery is slow (as predicted), then the process of re-hiring and re-tooling manufacturing should have time to react. If too many people are cut and factories are left idle too long, we could see a different kind of chaos during recovery.

So I agree it is a good time for action, provided the action either helps reduce costs or helps win business.

- David