This is the first time, I have come to terms to accept the reality of recession. Not that I am averse to accept difficult situations:-). Yes, all the finance pundits have talked at length and declared the recession many times in past – 2003, 2007, 2010 etc. However, I have had never bothered about it as I had never felt so impacted.
One would be lying these days if they say that it is ‘business as usual’. For past few months, I have noticed that customers are hesitant to release purchase orders, invest in new technology or roll out new tools/solutions. This seems to be the trend overall for all organizations ranging from startups to large ones. Not that everybody is sitting idle; however, in general, while discussing with industry leaders/sales folks, the transactions seem to be time consuming and slow. Most of them seem to be in bargaining mode. Ironically, I believe this is necessary sometimes as this helps the organization to know if it can withstand the tough times and most importantly, how long.
Being a startup (well, I think we are a tad over the startup tag now), we need to measure our every move and explore every opportunity ensuring that career paths of our employees are not impacted, especially in such times. In fact, as they say, necessity is the mother of invention. We have now been involved to build a mini R&D as well as CoE (Center of Excellence) by developing tools/solutions that are the need of the hour. This is helping our team members think through more creatively and vet the solution with different scenarios.
Indeed, some of our customers still try to take advantage by exploring ways to get the work done without wanting us to charge them. Sometimes, it saddens that despite helping them in difficult times by accommodating many new changes, they seem to expect almost everything to be provided with zero invoice. We have decided that it is better to let go such customers and focus more on other customers who treat us as their partners in long term success. Yes, we know that this is a tough decision; however, we know that we may not be able to grow if we continue to serve customers whose only intentions is to get the job done and consider little from long term perspective. We too are human and feel little shaky to lose customer(s); however, we are convinced about our such decisions. We wish them Gratis Malady !
We also try to indulge in other activities like revamping our website and making it more meaningful, conduct thought provoking sessions with team members, discuss about making better road maps on deliverables etc. I don’t say that it is easy; however, it gives us a measure of our organization strength. One doesn’t get to discuss on such things more frequently when one is completely indulged in their projects/assignments.
Let’s catch up in few months and understand which organizations have stood tall in such times. Till then, take care and have a creative time :-). I would like to hear from you on what different are you doing to beat this recession.
Your post has litfed the level of debate
Thank you, Topher 🙂