OD BLOG

Growing Your Business in the Recession

Organization Development Blog — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 18:27:00 GMT

Arizona economists are predicting that our state will lag significantly behind the national rebound from the recession. While some business people may choose to be patient and wait for local conditions to improve, others are weighing their options.

Some companies are considering exploring greener pastures,expanding or revising their product and service offerings or making wholesale changes to their business in order to recapture revenue streams.

As you re-examine the economic landscape and plan your business strategy for 2010, what new or revised directions are you considering for your business?

Replies can be posted on this blogsite or you can reply privately to: http://www.od-consulting.com/content/contactus.html.Replies to the OD-Consulting website will be summarized and posted on this blogsite next week.

“Every time we've moved ahead in IBM, it was because someone was willing to take a chance, put his head on the block, and try something new.”

- T. J. Watson, Jr.

Are you investing in your business or other equities?

Organization Development Blog — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:32:00 GMT

Recent earnings reports from some of the leading financial institutions have revealed that their profits in the third quarter are largely attributable to investment returns and not from their lending business.Analysts speculate that the banks do not yet have confidence in the lending sector as a viable line of business.

Bank lending practices are an important fuel in stimulating and sustaining economic growth, but if the banks are reluctant to engage in their core business, what impact might that have for economic growth in general?

Hopefully, other industries are attempting to leverage their core businesses instead of relying on their treasury strategy to create profit. However, if you find that the market is not ready for the expansion of your business, where are you putting your retained earnings?

“I never worry about action, but only about inaction.”

-Winston Churchill

Are you Positioning Your Business to Succeed In The New Economy?

Organization Development Blog — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:23:00 GMT

ASU’s W.P. Carey School of Business announced that it will honor Jan Hatzius (chief U.S. Economist at Goldman Sachs) with the 2009 “Lawrence R. Klein Award for Accuracy”. Hatzius forecasted the unanticipated global financial crisis more accurately than 50 other top forecasters who participated in an ASU survey.

Hatzius predicts slow growth for the remained of this year and an unemployment rate of 10.5% by the close of 2010.

However, unemployment is a lagging indicator and those who want to take advantage of the economic rebound as early as possible look to leading indicators.

With investor confidence rising in the equity and commodity markets (with major indexes surging and gold reaching an all-time high) and Australia leading the way by being the first major economy to hike its benchmark interest rate (making American exports more attractive there), some business leaders are preparing for expanding markets.

What things are you doing to prepare for success in the new economy?

Leading Indicators Responses

Organization Development Blog — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:23:00 GMT

Follow up to the briefing: " What Leading Indicators Do You Use to Make Important Decisions in your Business?"

A recent survey of business managers revealed the following results (numbers are approximate):

40% use unemployment numbers

20% use consumer confidence polls

15% use stock market indexes

10% use home sales

10% use GDP

5% other

If you haven't weighed in yet and would like to, add your comments to this blog.

"I never worry about action, but only about inaction".

- Winston Churchill

Reorganize Now!

Organization Development Blog — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:11:00 GMT

As if in a race against time, many businesses are reorganizing the way they do business in order to not just salvage what they have left after this devastating recession, but also to prepare for the new, emerging marketplace.

If we think of organizing in strategic and tactical terms, we might characterize them as:

Strategic organizing consists of how you organize your business around your customers, products, markets and geography. Tactical organizing consists of how you organize your operations, principally resource management, production/service and logistics.

As businesses downsize as a result of reduced demand for their products and services, it requires at least a significant change in some tactical processes and at most, a wholesale change in both strategic and tactical organizing.

In order to share best practices, describe how your business has reorganized to survive in the current business environment as well as preparing to thrive in the emerging economy.

“When one door closes, another opens: but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”

- Alexander Graham Bell