Managing Smaller Company Strategy During Uncertainty
Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.
Every industry always faces challenges, even in stable economic environments. And today’s world is not exactly stable. We’ve seen far more challenges and uncertainty for most industries, regions, and organizations than they might have expected when developing their plans over the last few years. That is causing a lot of organizations to revisit those strategic plans, adjusting and adapting to the new reality.
For large organizations, this is an inconvenience, and may require them to reset projections for key performance metrics. But it’s a manageable change. Key investments may be temporarily scaled back or deferred, focus may shift more toward driving efficiency, and so on. But it’s all things that can be achieved within the scope of how they operate.
However, for small- to medium-sized businesses, this kind of strategic uncertainty can be far more problematic. Not only does it threaten their ability to make progress, it may even jeopardize their very existence if they make the wrong choices.
They don’t generally have the resources to absorb extended periods of uncertainty while continuing to pursue ambitious growth strategies. But if they put all of those strategies on hold to consolidate their current operations, they may fall so far behind better funded competitors that they can never recover.
So, what should these smaller …
Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.
|
I only know two pieces of music. One of them is 'Claire de Lune.' The other one isn't. - Victor Borge |
