Businesses are facing serious management challenges during the current global economic downturn and market turbulence: Every sector of the economy is being disrupted. Fortunately, however, and at the same time, profound opportunities are being created.

How can we ensure a winning business strategy when the stakes are so high?

The following 16 strategies and tactics, culled from recent research on Winning in a Downturn by Fast Future, if implemented, will help businesses of all sizes survive the current turmoil and secure their future.

1) Use scenarios to plan for an uncertain future: Successful businesses, no longer happy to rely on a single business plan or set of assumptions, are turning to scenario planning to both tackle the uncertainty and to identify the opportunities that could arise, even in the worst circumstances. However, scenario planning must be accompanied by a series of tough questions:

• Which market segments and aspects of our business would be most at risk?
• What would the implications be in terms of products, pricing and who our key customers would be?
• What resources should we keep or let go?
• Which actions should we be taking under any financial climate?

2) Growing in a downturn: Even in a downturn there is opportunity. Rents are lower, raw materials are cheaper, firms are keener to trade, capital goods are cheaper and labour is more abundant. Under these circumstances, those with the right mindset can really accelerate business growth. Another example: If your rivals are focused on cost cutting, they are probably not paying enough attention to their customers. You have the opportunity to examine and enhance every aspect of your customer offering, add more value, differentiate service, make it better and easier for customers to do business with you and increase their loyalty as a result.

3) Revisit the business plan regularly: Tight financial management is essential to ensure you have the resources to continue in business. In a volatile economy, you have to rework your business model on a regular basis to ensure you can survive on smaller orders and lower revenues per transaction. Cutting inventories and reducing your ‘environmental footprint’ can play a massive part by eliminating waste and improving energy efficiency.

4) Deepen the customer dialogue: Invest time to create a long-term dialogue with your customers. The better you understand (i) how your products and services are used by your customers, (ii) the technical and logistical challenges they face and (iii) what their future plans are, the greater the opportunity to provide genuine added value solutions and deepen the long-term relationship.

5) Engage and support the supply chain: Talk to your staff, suppliers, partners, competitors, regulators and investors to understand how they are all being affected and how they are responding. Use what you learn to identify ways of adding value to your end customers and to your products and services through collaborations across the supply chain.

6) Invest in your people: Pay yourself big dividends by investing in your people. An unmotivated staff doesn’t generally perform well or deliver good service. Implement low cost training options such as e-learning, accelerated learning solutions, secondments, job swaps, and involvement  in physical and virtual social networks. Even invite in guest speakers from the industry. Encourage staff to participate in volunteering programs: a great motivator.

7) Embrace open innovation approaches: Many firms such as Proctor & Gamble and Kraft are adopting a more open approach to innovation – encouraging and rewarding those outside the business to contribute ideas– but smaller firms can benefit too. This approach dramatically expands your research and development capability, accelerates new product and process development, cuts costs and provides an effective way to increase exposure to your brand.

8) Implement changes quickly and decisively: Once decisions to implement changes have been made, act fast and decisively. It is critical that once a decision is made, it is communicated and acted on rapidly so everyone can come to terms with it and move on.