I'll admit that it's hard, indeed, to get focused on business innovation when every management conversation seems to be about downsizing. But consider for a moment that some of the best ideas - and most exciting businesses - came out of hard times.
Both Apple and Microsoft were founded in the 1970's. . . in the middle of a big economic downturn. In the early 90's, when the dot coms took a dangerous dive, little Palm computing jump started an entire industry within a matter of months when they made the revolutionary switch from software maker to hardware company in the race to "pen computing."
My favorite story of the week concerns Champagne. Apparently it was the Brits, as early as 1675, who accepted and enjoyed the bubbles in their effervecent vino at the same time that Dom Perignon, the merry French monk from Hautvillers, was struggling to remove the blasted things.
Perhaps there's a step in one of your processes that, once skipped, would produce something even more desireable than you've got now?
Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention. If you're downsizing staff and cutting back on things, you probably ought to open your mind to the possibility that the changes you're making actually eliminate the erroneously assumed limits you'd been placing on things all along.
Technology, of course, comes immediately to mind. Which jobs have you been protecting out of concern for the health and happiness of your people? Might now be the time to automate some human processes and add a little health and happiness to your firm's bottom line?
Don't be afraid to entertain new ideas just because money is getting tight. Use the advent of tightening purse strings to eliminate the assumptions that have prevented innovation in the past.
Was it IBM who taught a generation of sales people to "eliminate the excuses?"
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