Anyone who can think straight and does more than reading the local newspaper or watching one of the indoctrinated television channels around the world, knows that the “economical crisis” is not so bad as it sounds. A group of people who run this world via the banking corporations messed up big time and now they let us pay for it and call it a worldwide economical crisis. Enough said here. In this particular case, failure is incompetence.
I would like to shift my focus a bit more to the people who work hard and play hard. In this current environment, you need to invest just as much time and energy as you did in the times that there would not be a so-called crisis. In advertisements, it is always about showing your face. In good times and in bad times. Companies that stop developing their core business will shut down sooner than later. This is why advertising in some form of digital or traditional platforms like in billboards or the use of Vinyl floor graphics is important. Stop telling yourself that this happened because of the crisis. It didn’t. There is always a market ready for you. You need to shift, not stop doing what makes your product or services so different from the competition.
Let me point the finger towards my own business. I know a lot of people that would call it a ‘nice thing to have’, just like owning a Porsche. What they seem to forget is that Analyst Relations actually adds value, while a Porsche decreases in value. I can live with people making that decision, because whomever does is doomed in the world of business anyway, but not on my watch. Don’t ever think for a minute that you deserve something because it is yours, when banks or investors are involved. You need to bring in the money. Keep operational cost low and invest in what your customers benefit from. Claiming all is going well under the circumstances is not what makes you a survivor.
If you really think that you have done everything in your power, than there is no shame in shutting it down. This won’t come as a complete surprise to your staff or investors. They are well informed about it all. Sometimes even the stuff I write about can’t motivate people to make it happen. No worries. Close the book and give it a rest. If you feel that you’ve learned something, you start a new book, and if you feel that it wasn’t for you, try a comic book.
As a closing note to stimulate you all about a client of Gartner, a Belgian company. They paid big bucks for their great service. All the analysts the CEO spoke to, told him that his product was basically shit and didn’t meet the criteria for his core business. He kept on going and kept his operational cost low and shifted on certain points within the business, but he did not change his core product. Six years after his first contact, they write research papers about the company. Now they are the big glory within their sector. For these people the hard times they had, did not correlate to incompetence. It was failure from somewhere else.
