Austerity Business E-Book

Alex Pratt

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 121

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2010

Beschreibung

"These tips are worth their weight in gold to businesses of all sizes."
—Peter Jones, CBE, Entrepreneur and star of TV's Dragon's Den

For any business, less really can be more.

We all face new, austere times. Whether starting up, surviving or seeking to dominate its niche, every business needs to adjust. Based on years of real business experience, this book shows you how.

From reinvigorating staff with Dunkirk spirit, to building revenues on a shoestring, this book tells you where to cut and where to keep spending.

Packed with witty anecdotes, inspirational quotes and common sense advice, Austerity Business is a reinvigorating read for any business leader sworn down by daily bad news – the age of austerity really can be about thriving, not just surviving.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright Page

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Acknowledgements

Introduction

FROM HERE TO AUSTERITY

HOW THIS BOOK HELPS

PART I - ATTITUDE

TIP 1 - FACE THE TRUTH

TIP 2 - GIRAFFES DON’T JUMP

TIP 3 - ADJUST YOUR SET

TIP 4 - OPPORTUNITIES DON’T KNOCK

TIP 5 - YOUR FIVE A DAY

① AM I IN DENIAL?

② IS MY GLASS HALF FULL?

③ AM I OPEN AND TRANSPARENT?

④ DO I BELIEVE IN FACT OR FICTION?

⑤ AM I PANICKING OR FOCUSING?

TIP 6 - NO ENTREPRENEUR IS AN ISLAND

TIP 7 - DON’T PUT OFF ‘TIL TOMORROW WHAT YOU CAN DO TODAY

TIP 8 - TIME POVERTY

TIP 9 - KEEP THE FAITH

TIP 10 - PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE

TIP 11 - A COACH IN YOUR POCKET

TIP 12 - KEEP FIT

PART II - PEOPLE

TIP 13 - MUSKETEERS AND MERCENARIES

TIP 14 - FOLLOW THE LEADER

TIP 15 - ABOLISH SLAVERY

TIP 16 - IT’S GOOD TO WORK

TIP 17 - DON’T HIRE AND HOPE

TIP 18 - ONE SIZE DOESN’T FIT ALL

TIP 19 - MEETING THE CHALLENGE

PART III - CUSTOMERS

TIP 20 - GOOD VALUE

TIP 21 - SELL YOUR SOCKS OFF

TIP 22 - KEEP ON MARKETING

TIP 23 - PRICE FOR VICTORY

TIP 24 - CARE FOR YOUR CUSTOMERS

TIP 25 - WORD OF MOUTH AND MOUSE

TIP 26 - GET YOURSELF CONNECTED

TIP 27 - FORGET OUT-OF-FOCUS GROUPS

TIP 28 - ON WITH THE SHOW

TIP 29 - YOUR WORD IS YOUR BRAND

PART IV - STRATEGY

TIP 30 - DREDGE THE POND

TIP 31 - YOU WON’T SAVE YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS

TIP 32 - BREAD TODAY, JAM TOMORROW

TIP 33 - WASTE NOT, WANT NOT

TIP 34 - SECURE YOUR SUPPLY LINES

TIP 35 - FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS

TIP 36 - ASSUME MAKES AN ASS …

TIP 37 - NO SURPRISES

TIP 38 - AVOID PERFECTION

TIP 39 - KISS

INDEX

This edition first published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd in 2010

Copyright © 2010 Alex Pratt

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ISBN 978-0-470-68872-4

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Set in 11.5/17 pt Jenson Pro by Sparks - www.sparkspublishing.com

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alex Pratt is an award-winning entrepreneur and one of the UK’s leading business figures. He started trading bankrupt stock at the age of 16, and was quickly spotted as a national rising business star.

Today, Alex is Director of Serious Brands. He has worked with several governments as an advisor on business, competitiveness and innovation. He is also actively involved in setting up the UK’s National Enterprise Academy. www.alexpratt.co.uk

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To everyone who helped me along the way, especially my dad, thank you. I’m also indebted to Ellen Hallsworth who helped me craft coherent tips from my rambling thoughts.

INTRODUCTION

A couple of years ago, the world was hit by a global economic pandemic. Titanic companies that seemed ‘too big to fail’ found out they were also too big to fit the lifeboats. General Motors became the biggest bankruptcy of all time. The collapse of Lehman Brothers sparked a global financial meltdown on a scale not seen since the Great Depression. Iceland (the country) went bust. Oops.

It seems like nobody on the planet was untouched by this economic crisis. Healthy, productive businesses were laid low in a heartbeat, and much lauded business models now appear in retrospect to have been led by the highly paid deaf, dumb and blind. Mind you, hindsight is a wonderful thing. Who could have predicted that the mighty German economy would have come to be seen as weak because of its dependence on strong export performance? And who would have thought that City bankers, once praised as heroes for making us all richer, would become public enemy number one in such a short space of time?

Today, we’re all living with the consequences and picking up the pieces. Much of what we took as certain a short time ago has evaporated. One thing is certain, running or managing a business is now a fundamentally different challenge. This feels like Business 2.0, and it seems a lot of the rules have changed.

FROM HERE TO AUSTERITY

So what exactly has changed? World trade paused and took a deep breath when the credit crunch landed. An initial whirlwind in the financial markets triggered an earthquake in construction and a drought in liquidity, which in turn went on to feed a tsunami of unemployment. Throw in the rapidly ageing populations in the developed economies, levels of public and private national debt not seen in the West outside of World Wars, and a global banking system on its knees. Then there is the rapid and unprecedented shift of economic power from West to East, away from traditional western democracies to more autocratic trading zones like China, Russia and the Middle East. And don’t forget the expected shortages in energy, food and water fed by dwindling stocks of natural resources and a burgeoning global population. This will all have a profound effect on how business gets done. Take nothing for granted.

The combination of the credit crunch and a global recession has cleared the mist that was covering the harsh economic truth that we live in a world of scarce resources. It now seems clear that we’ve already moved from the age of plenty into a new era of austerity. We need to get to grips with a number of new realities. Did you think you knew about how to win business, how to service customers and where cash comes from? Think again.

Pre-crisis demand was fashion-driven, fed by western consumers who were making businesses rich and driving forward the forces of globalisation. We found we could always spend a bit more, take that extra business trip and afford that pay rise to our top performers, because insatiable consumers, especially the baby boomer generation, were always going to want more tomorrow than they consumed today. Only a couple of years ago, staff retention had gone all power naps and duvet days. It would have been inconceivable to approach a dedicated team with a pay cut proposal, yet global airlines, international phone companies and worldwide management consultancies have now all had to put this to the test. Some have moved flexibly and nimbly in the right direction to occupy a new trading space. Others have become mired in the inertia of legacy systems and thinking, or frozen rigid in pure panic.

Now, shocked by the fact that living standards don’t just keep getting higher and higher, buyers are focusing more on what they need, less on what they fancy and much less on what the neighbours think. The disposable desires of recent generations are already being replaced by more of a ‘make do and mend’ mentality.

Customers have changed, and as businesses, we need to change with them.

Steady on, you might think. The markets are looking up, and conditions might well return back to normal soon. Sadly not. The financial crisis is actually the least of our worries. Add in the other long term austerity drivers, such as the fiscal debt, unsustainable usage of natural resources and the ageing workforce, and the conditions for permanent change and more austere times for the West look clear.

Of course, changing the habits of bloated businesses and consumers is more easily said than done. While austerity conditions will need hungry, more focused business minds, not every business decision maker will turn the changes to their advantage by switching early enough to new thriftier winning ways. Like the mice in Who Moved My Cheese, many will be paralysed and will struggle to live beyond their previous comforts.

There will be no return to normality. It’s time to wake up and smell the austerity.

HOW THIS BOOK HELPS

Far too often, business books look in the rear-view mirror. There are basically three types, and all are limited in the help they can offer you, as an entrepreneur or manager, in coping with the new world of austerity.

This book could have given you my ‘10 simple rules for guaranteed business success’ - the problem is, I don’t know them. They don’t really exist. Of course I know that ‘cash is king’, ‘pricing is pivotal’ and ‘people make the difference’. But, if you’re reading this book, you already know that too. We also know that what works for you is probably not right for me, so we may as well be honest with each other and state upfront that there are no simple universal business rules.

Then there’s the ‘Do it my way. Look, it worked for me!’ type of business book. But this is just as flawed as an aid to your own success. Sure, these stories are interesting for the great job they do in highlighting that successful entrepreneurs are as fallible as the rest of us. But other than reinforcing the critical roles played by courage, hard work and luck in attaining success in the first place, they fall short of arming us with practical new habits and thinking. Your journey is your own, pure and simple.

Finally, you get the dried and dusted academic kind of business book. ‘We looked at 500 firms, and this is what we found’. This kind of book is less about ego; it’s founded on evidence, methodology and analysis. The post-hoc rationalisation of the past does create some wonderfully intricate and complicated mappings of what it took to succeed. Life is indeed very complex, but I’m not sure it needs to be quite as complicated as we sometimes like to make it appear.

That’s why I’ve tried to make this book different. The age of austerity business is all about boldly going where your business has not gone before. The authors of the next successful entrepreneur autobiographies will be those who are today focused on mastering what they do, on building confidence and the courage to do more of it, and on quickly adopting changing habits fit for winning ways in the face of a rapidly changing world. There is no roadmap to copy.

I’ve been working at the coalface of business since I first began trading bankrupt stock, aged sixteen. I haven’t gone flat out to make a massive pile yet, and I don’t presume to tell you that I know better than you. Like you, I’m still learning, and this period of austerity has been a huge shock for me too. What I have done is dedicate myself to running the most interesting small business I can, and this book seeks to share some of that with you. I can point you to some key questions and tips, suggest implications and help you to conclusions, but you will need to come to your own truths and answers. Doffing my hat to a previous period of austerity, I’ve collected my thoughts into ‘the 39 tips’ and hope that at least some of them will strike a chord with you and make a difference to your prospects. I’ve divided these into the four areas that I’ve found are crucial for any business to get straight: attitude; people; customers and strategy. In each section, I’ve included a range of thoughts, suggestions and ideas, ranging from those which could have an immediate impact on your bottom line, to the small things that can make a big difference.

Try to see this as a joint adventure in this new age of austerity, where no-one really knows what’s going to happen. There is unlikely to be another moment so rich in business opportunity in our lifetimes, and I truly hope you’ll come to your new business truths and decisions much faster having read this book. Grab your chances and adapt in real time.

Business is easy. If only the world would stand still.

PART I

ATTITUDE

TIP 1

FACE THE TRUTH

A lie would have no sense unless the truth were felt to be dangerous.

Alfred Adler

No-one has lived through such a fundamental moment of change in the world of business. Not you, not your boss, not your employees. Not even me. The old period of plenty is dead. A sustained era of austerity is upon us.

No wonder you bought this book.

Looking at the world around you, with rising unemployment, massive debts, grim GDP figures and global warming rising up the agenda, and worries about cuts and inflation lying ahead, the words of the old Beatles’ song comes to mind - ‘Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away’. But that was then, yesterday. This is now. The question here is: do you still believe in yesterday? Even more worryingly: are you still doing business like it is yesterday?