What is the difference between managing in a boom and managing in a deep recession?” 　　“None.”

　　A loss of memory is often a coping mechanism for trauma or damage but, beware, it has dangerous side effects too.

　　As we nervously and unsteadily emerge from the deepest well of recession, it’s easy to see who has learnt from the pain and who may yet perish.

　　Some time ago, in mid-recession, I wrote “beware pirates getting into positions of power on the high seas” and I also predicted “pirates would perish”. Both happened and none of us will forget the pirates even if some have yet to perish.

　　A storm uproots everything, but what matters is what we learnt. What’s unthinkable is to hope for a return to “the good old days”. What’s worth looking at is the traits that sustained the good guys amidst the storm.

　　Integrity

　　It’s one of those words that gets thrown around but it doesn’t often stick. The good people who run good businesses have survived. It’s as simple as that. Integrity often means ‘doing the right thing’ and, inevitably, doing the right thing is significantly harder than doing the ‘easy’ thing. Clearly, Pirates are integrity free.

　　Choosing Your Customers

　　There’s a very simple, perhaps simplistic question, it’s this; “If you didn’t need the money, would you work with them?” If the answer is “no” then you are in for trouble. The purpose of business is to create customers, but that also means “reasonable customers”. Quite simply, you can’t afford to have your time consumed pleasing the unpleasable and the impact they will have on your brand. It takes courage to say “no” but it might well be what defines you.

　　New Brands

　　Of course there is the well-worn cliché of recession creating opportunity. There’s another way of looking at that: it creates new brands. Those new brands can change the playing field considerably and they don’t always need a recession to disrupt the marketplace successfully. When money is tight, people look more to brands and ask “Can I trust this?” Therefore, to survive, you need to spend more time and money on your brand, not less. If you don’t, the new entrants will eventually take you on.

　　The Key Questions

　　I’ll offer two. You need to interrogate your version of both of these questions.

　　They should be customer facing and not inwardly self-congratulatory.

　　Q1: Why should I buy from you?

　　Q2: Does your marketing really create the desire to buy?

　　Value

　　Recession creates new clichés. Every time you hear it, it becomes less plausible.

　　The most common and unimaginative response to tumbling income is ‘value’. It’s as if a quick banner proclaiming ‘value’ is the saviour of the universe. Sadly, it’s not. Drive down any High Street and how many times do you see ‘value’ as the proposition.

　　Being ‘good value’ is fundamental not something unique. Value is also entirely subjective and to guess at what’s good value for me is the same as guessing my income. In today’s new world, you need to show me value rather than tell me it’s value.

　　Training

　　A General would hardly ask his troops to conquer a neighbouring hill held by an opposing army without setting out the vision. From the vision (conquering the hill) they’d set out a plan of attack (the mission). To do that, he would need the buy in and commitment of his troops (motivation). Before doing that, he would have to train them and equip them to do the job (training).

　　Good businesses invest in training every week. If you look at who survived the storm, inevitably they invested in their people. After all, companies do not grow, people do.

　　Reimagine

　　Business changes. Good businesses constantly seek criticism, ways to improve and meaningful feedback too. Every business needs to dismantle and rebuild.

　　If your business was a mobile phone, think of how many recent reincarnations that’s had. Better still, think of what it wiped out?

　　What’s The Difference?

　　This is a true story. A very short story with hidden depth and a huge powerful lesson.

　　Like you, when the first giant wave hit, I asked myself several questions about our business, our direction, our focus and our future.

　　Like you, we were suddenly side-swiped but knew that doing the right thing would see us safely to the other side. Still, we would take experienced advice from wherever we could.

　　My Dad spent a lifetime working with managers. He founded the Irish Management Institute and worked with many of Ireland’s most distinguished and successful businesses. On top of that, his books were best sellers. He was a good port of call.

　　I wanted his advice about managing our business in a recession. His answer is the best piece of wisdom I can share with you.

　　I said; “What is the difference between managing in a boom and managing in a deep recession?”

　　He raised an eyebrow, paused for a second and said:

　　“None.”