It’s hardly news that we are in for a rough 12 months navigating the economic shock of double-digit inflation, energy costs rocketing, labour shortages and supply chain issues.
It’s hardly news that we are in for a rough 12 months navigating the economic shock of double-digit inflation, energy costs rocketing, labour shortages and supply chain issues.
For those of us old enough to have weathered a recession or three, this is different gravy and it’s testing business leaders and entrepreneurs across the globe. You are not alone.
So how to build a pragmatic, workable strategic plan in the face of yet more ‘unprecedented’ global events?
A recent Gartner study of CFOs found that almost 80% planned to accelerate their digital investments across all business functions throughout the anticipated downturn. The view was that this would put them in the best possible shape when recovery comes – more agile, lean, responsive and able to scale their businesses and steal a march on the competition.
However, they are also clear there was no new money to fund this. The investment dollars will have to be carved out of savings elsewhere and as is so often the case - in business and in life - deciding what NOT to do is the killer question.
As the Gartner analysts summed it up: “We can’t just play defense, we have to play offense”.
Ambitious boards will be making their plans right now. The fall out of the economic downturn will land ‘asymmetrically’ across your customer base and it will be more important than ever to work out who to target and where to invest in order to maximise short term cash flow and ensure you protect the long term, sustainable value that will allow you to emerge stronger.
There’s no silver bullet (alas) - but simply ‘playing defense’ is not a strategy we recommend.
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