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How do you survive in the face of stiff competition? How do you stay afloat in the time of crisis? What business survival strategies can you implement in trying moments?

If you want to recover, what you can’t do is blame the economy and feel sorry for yourself. And you can’t just sit around and wait for things to change. You have to make change happen.  

During the last 15 weeks, we discussed several strategies for surviving in times of crisis. We spoke about how to keep your eyes on the cash flow, target your sales, prepare a finance strategy, find new clients, develop systems and how to be serious about the business skills of your sales and administrative staff.

We shared with you the six greatest strategies that will enable your business to ride through the storm and come out of the current financial economic crisis on the other side, leaner, meaner and ready for anything:

• Eliminate -- Don’t waste your cash. Replace unmotivated and unproductive employees immediately. Look at your processes and rewrite them if they are outdated or simply wrong.
• Activate -- Creating a sense of urgency to engage and motivate your people drive performance.
• Communicate -- Keep communication lines open and transparent.
• Innovate -- Create a culture of innovation and creativity.
• Identify -- Think and identify opportunities for infiltrating your competitors’ turf.
• Negotiate -- Form partnerships that are mutually beneficial. Reach out to your vendors, suppliers, bankers, distributors for better rates, better deals.

Branson
Let us now turn our attention to an extraordinary character – Sir Richard Branson, one of the most successful business leaders and entrepreneurs today. He is best known as the Founder and Chairman of Virgin Group of more than 400 companies.  
His first business venture was a magazine called Student at the age of 16.  In 1970, he set up an audio-record mail-order business. In 1972, he opened a chain of record stores, Virgin Records, later known as Virgin Megastores. Branson’s Virgin brand grew rapidly during the 1980s, as he set up Virgin Atlantic Airways and expanded the Virgin Records music label.

Branson is the fourth richest citizen of the United Kingdom, according to the Forbes 2011 list of billionaires, with an estimated net worth of US$ 4.2 billion. He has created a business model that many try to emulate with more or less success. He has created a large organisation made up of a large number of relatively small, very successful entrepreneurial companies where people are prized and a true coaching culture exists.
What he has actually created is an amazing brand with strong brand values and a culture that binds all the smaller entrepreneurial companies together and leverages them in their different markets.

People power
In one of his autobiographies, ‘Business Stripped Bare’, he shares some of the key ingredients which have led to his success. I will outline and summarise some of these key ingredients for you and encourage you to ask yourself what you can apply to your business and how you will do that.

People, People, People
Throughout the book you cannot fail but see a very strong message - central to the Virgin brand, the Virgin success is its people. Recruiting the right people, keeping them engaged and motivated, rewarding them for their efforts and successes are all key to the success of the business.
As Branson says: “I think, if people are properly and regularly recognised for their initiative, then the business has to flourish. Why? Because it’s their business, an extension of their personality. They have a stake in its success.”
So many business leaders fail to understand the true power of that statement. Recruit the right people for your business, trust them to do their best and your business will grow. And this leads to recruiting the right people.

Richard quotes Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines who said: “It is difficult to change someone’s attitude – so hire for attitude and train for skill.”
So, when you are recruiting, make sure you recruit people who share your values, the values of the organisation and then train them in the skills they are lacking. At Virgin, one of their core values is customer service, going the extra mile for the customer. So, when they recruit, they look for “dedication and belief and a willingness to go that extra mile for colleagues and customers.”

The other quality they recruit for is ‘discipline’. “A self-disciplined employee will have the patience to conduct routine business routinely, the talent to respond exceptionally to exceptional circumstances and the wisdom to know the difference between the two.”
“Inspire your people to think like entrepreneurs and whatever you do, treat them like adults. The hardest taskmaster of all is a person’s own conscience, so the more responsibility you give people, the better they will work for you.”

How much trust do you need to have to do this? How many of you readily give your people more responsibility knowing that they will work better for you? The truth is that this is human nature. Think of a young boy – you tell him that he is in charge of making sure that your pet dog doesn’t leave the room as you are decorating in another room in the house. What will that young boy do? Probably even sit on the dog so he doesn’t move! Most of us relish true responsibility.

“Here is the good news: The more you free your people to think for them, the more they can help you. You don’t have to do this all on your own.”
If you don’t feel relieved by this statement from Richard Branson, who has built an empire made up of entrepreneurial companies run by other people, ask yourself why. What is stopping you from letting others help you build your business?

Way out
There is no denying that we are currently experiencing one of history’s most serious global economic downturns. Of one thing we can be certain — we don’t know when it will end. But it shouldn’t be all doom and gloom. So, it will be a comfort to anyone to read Richard Branson’s, ‘Business Stripped Bare’, a stirring story by one of the greatest risk takers I know.

In his book, Branson talks frankly about his failures and successes and how he learnt from mistakes and setbacks. He defies risks, turning them into opportunities and meets challenges head-on. “The best, most solid way out of a crisis in a changing market is through experiment and adaptation,” says Branson. “People have a fear of failure and while this is perfectly reasonable, it’s also very odd.”

Lessons
We can’t all be Richard Branson but we can learn from his example whilst weathering the storm.
I’ve learnt that the more we allow ourselves to languish in a state of insecurity or depression, the more likely this condition continues. In my experience, when turbulence hits hard, company bosses announce that annual bonuses and end-of-year office celebrations are cancelled. The negative feelings and resentment pervade and employees react by doing only the minimum and spend their time and energy speculating whether their jobs are on the line.
Open and honest communication can help keep morale and productivity high as employees believe in their company and that they are part of the team, part of the process and are therefore, motivated to make their company work. Now more than ever, in a time of economic uncertainty, the corporate culture should be to encourage a sense of ownership and empowerment among the staff.
As Branson says: “Success in business is not about inaction... Failure is not giving things a go in the first place. People who fail are those who don’t have a go and don’t make an effort.”

(The writer, a corporate director with over 25 years’ senior managerial experience can be contacted at [email protected])