Managing in a downturn - video transcript

Everyday it seems there are more and more headlines about the credit crunch, the threat of a recession, the collapse of the housing market of the downturn, and while they might be a bit sensationalist I also think they present an opportunity. What is quite clear is there will be a reduction in the consumer spending this year, so that means businesses in related markets will find this year much tougher than they did last year and indeed the year before. And the question is, after 17 years of uninterrupted growth in the UK - is your business ready to deal with that? Particularly since many of your staff will have had no experience of managing in a downturn, let alone a recession. My belief is that status quo probably is not the right option to take. I'm absolutely not advocating wholesale radical change, but I do think you need to consider the effects of a consumer slowdown on your business, and then just think - what do we need to do differently?

The issues will be different depending on whether your business directly faces the consumer, or whether the business services the businesses that face the consumer. So what we need to think about is planning, our experience shows that in a volatile market, the businesses that are most successful tend to be the ones that appear to be the most agile. One of the reasons for that agility stems from the fact they have done successful scenario planning, and that means when the scenario actually transpires they are ready to execute a comprehensive well thought through plan, they are not reacting to the situation, and that means they can take advantage of the situation rather than be hindered by it. Now in terms of planning there are many ways to think about it - I tend to think about it in four boxes - first is strategy, then financing, operations then lastly stakeholder management, which is particularly key in a volatile market.

So the question is how you might flex each of those to take account of the issues that the businesses face today, but also to think about how you might want to plan for a scenario in the future.

That is what this website is trying to do - give you practical advice on the key issues, that our experience has shown manifest itself in a slowdown, and to give you some simple steps to help you manage your business successfully in a downturn. I hope you find it useful.