Friday, July 14, 2006

Business Survival: How Business Golf Can Deal With It?

Yes, the fuel prices are up and when the economy is hinged on the oil industry everything is going to be effected.  Is that a prediction of doom or a projection of prosperity?  Well, you be the judge.  You can sit there and whine about the cost of fuel or you can start thinking on how to deal with it.    I am thinking about dealing with it.  Being in the golf business and being a consultant is not a real secured position right now.  But what I provide both for the golf industry and businesses is of great value right now and that is my experience.  I have been through this tough of a situation over five times in my 31 years of operations management. 

Why?  Because when it comes time for companies to go into survival mood they always lean on their operations manager to pull them through.  Traditionally, and unfortunately, there are still businesses out there that hire sales people to sale and not do anything else.  In this case sales people know nothing about how to survive because they know nothing about how the company is built.  The operation people are the engineers of the company and keep the business running for the sales and marketing groups.  They know what needs to be done to survive.

So what makes my operations experience so valuable and what is the secret to surviving this bump in the road…The questions should be what should you be doing?  

The first thing you need to remember is to stay positive no matter what…stay positive all the way to foreclosure is what one of my bosses told me a long time ago.  At the time I did not know what he meant, but having gone through some real hard times with him, like massive layoffs and closing of offices, I saw what he meant about being positive all to way to foreclosure.  Because he was very positive with the people that were effected, and I learned a lot.   From that positive attitude came the setting of the foundation of the change that had to be made in order for the company to ride out the down turn in the economy.  It has held true for five more times of down turned economy during my career.

 

There is no need on withdrawing from marketing your business and there is no need to withdraw from all of the activities you use to generate business.  There is one thing I mention in my book that makes even more sense today and that is to keep planning…do nothing without a plan and stick to the plan.  If you have thought your plan out to the conclusion then there is no need to change your plan.

Playing Business Golf now probably makes more sense than ever before.  Because Business Golf is done with a purpose in mind and not just done as a frilly expense to the already strained bottomline.  The most important thing is that People need it.  Your customers need it… Your Vendors need it… and for sure your employees need business golf more than ever.  Business Golf takes their minds off the negative and places right on the plan you have landed out.   It provides your customers with knowing what you are going to do to keep them as a customer.  It eases your vendors’ minds on if you are going to cut them or not.  And, for the engine of your business, your employees…well they need it more than ever.  Take them all out for a round of business golf and let them know how much you are going to need them…I guarantee if your plan was to ask everyone one of your operations people to help sell your product or services they would out produce your entire sales force…  Why, well golf generates trust and when you play business golf with your employees you just told them you trust them and people who trust someone will do anything for them…

So learn how to play business golf now so you can use it to survive what is obviously going to happen with the economy.

 

The How To Play Business Golf Ebook is now available and the Hardcopy will be available in August… http://innovativebusinessgolf.com

Scot Duke

President

Innovative Business Golf Solutions, LLC.

scot.duke@innovativebusinessgolf.com

www.innovativebusinessgolf.com

 ‘My Blog’ http://businessgolf.blogspot.com 

http://businessgolf.wordpress.com 

 

Author of: ‘How To Play Business Golf’, From The Boardroom To The Fairways…

The best investment you can make for your business…

http://www.innovativebusinessgolf.com/business_golf/cb_order.html

 

 

 

No comments: