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Washington Speakers Bureau represents the business experts whose ideas are changing the world. With global business in a tremendous state of fluctuation, we asked our speakers:
What can businesses do to weather the storm in 2009?
 Michael Abrashoff
Former Navy Commander and Author, It’s Your Ship
When I took command of the USS Benfold several years ago, I was talking to a sailor who said, “We just don’t feel safe.” I was stunned by this comment and realized that I was not only going to have to create a plan that would keep us safe, but would also have to communicate that to every sailor on the ship and get their buy-in and engagement. I knew that I couldn’t order a turnaround, but that by communicating a vision, training and educating our people, investing in them, creating a climate that treated them with respect and dignity, and empowering them ... with limits ... maybe we could turn our ship around.
These are the toughest economic times most of us have ever experienced and sometimes we may feel helpless because there are so many things we have no control over. On the USS Benfold, there were so many things we had no control over. We decided to focus on only those things we could influence and then flawlessly execute them better than anybody else.
This economy will turn around. It may not happen as quickly as we would like, but we need to, first and foremost, stay safe and then put ourselves in a position to control our own destiny when the economy does improve. That’s what leadership is all about.
 Chip Bell
Customer Service Expert and Author/Co-author of 17 Books
“Value-added” has been the solution for many service exemplars-take what customers expect and add a little more. But, value-added has gotten expensive. The free snack on a flight is now eight bucks. Pursuing extras can also send a mixed message. What do employees think when they’re told to “wow” customers in the morning, but are then informed of cutbacks in the afternoon?
Smart organizations go for value-unique service with imagination. When employees are asked to give more, they think, “I’m doing the best I can.” But if asked to pleasantly surprise more customers, they feel less like worker bees and more like fireflies. Just ask Southwest, Disney or Zappos.com employees what they think of their jobs, and you’ll get “it’s awesome,” not “it’s all right.” Now, check out their bottom lines! When service takes customers’ breath away, they feel valued, not just served.
 Rush Kidder
President, Institute on Global Ethics and Author, Moral Courage
Build trust through integrity. We’re no longer in a financial slump — this is an ethics recession. People are asking deep questions: Are we hopelessly selfish? Can free enterprise survive without integrity? Is capitalism amoral?
Business is increasingly blamed. So focus relentlessly on integrity. That may surprise the public. After all, journalists talk the language of economics — they think numbers and ask, “Where’s the bottom line?” Or they talk politics, and think power and ask, “Who’s winning?”
But those languages no longer explain our world. What is needed is the language of ethics that thinks values and asks, “What’s right?” Businesses that honestly address that question build real cultures of integrity — and rekindle trust. The rest? They’re beginning to look hopelessly mired in 2008 — with little trust and fewer customers.”
 Martin Lindstrom
Respected Global Branding Expert Author, Buyology
- Don’t even consider discounting your product or service. Extensive research shows that it takes seven years to recover from a price discount.
- If you feel a desperate need to discount your products, then bundle them. In short, if you’re Louis Vuitton, keep the premium price, but offer a free key ring.
- This is not the right time to cut your marketing budget. Instead, let your competitors follow that approach. Recent research shows that it’s during recession times that market shares can be gained for next to nothing.
- Team up with complementary products or services. If you’re selling jewelry, team up with a flower store and offer flowers every time you sell a wedding ring. If you’re selling soup, team up with a sandwich company and offer a package of soups and dressings. In short, team up with brands that can promote you, fit your offerings and help you to offer indirect discounts.
- Focus on the practical dimensions of your brand, ensuring that it has multiple functionalities. If you’re selling jackets, ensure that they can be turned inside out and thus have one color for an evening event and one for daily usage.
- Focus on the good old days. In crises, we’re more likely to be attracted to old values, as they stand for something solid, trustworthy and permanent.
Dan Pink
Columnist and Author, A Whole New Mind
Spend wisely on day-to-day items, but don’t neglect broader investments (financial and otherwise) in talent, learning and innovation. If you’re shrewd and strategic about it, this is actually a really good time to try something bold. Mark my words: In the next 12 to 18 months, we’ll see the emergence of some monumentally exciting new products, services and experiences that were birthed by companies that were thinking big and pushing frontiers while their competitors were running scared and retreating to safety.
 Thomas Stewart
Author, The Wealth of Knowledge
Major reallocations in market share happen during big upswings and big downturns. When it’s “business as usual,” changing market share is like winning territory on the Western Front in 1917. Downturns are huge opportunities for strong players — and huge threats to the weak.
Leaders need to think about three things: capacity, customers and capabilities.
- You know there’s overcapacity, but how will it be taken out in your industry? By companies failing? By shrinking across the board? By eliminating customer segments or product lines?
- During flush times, companies add incremental business with little regard for customer profitability. It’s time for a hard look.
- As you might expect, I personally think that capabilities are the most important consideration. You earn the right to win by having capabilities that deliver what customers want in a distinctive way. It’s better to cut capacity than capabilities.
 William Taylor
Founding Editor, Fast Company and Co-author, Mavericks at Work
As the competitive environment gets tougher and meaner, customers are getting even more selective about with whom they do business. So leaders have to figure out how to stand for something special and how to offer a positive alternative to a demoralizing status quo.
Think of the companies that are best weathering this storm: Apple, Pixar and Southwest Airlines. What do they have in common? They don’t look, talk, act or respond to bad times like their rivals do. Now more than ever, being different is what makes all the difference.
A crisis is a terrible thing to waste. Let’s not waste this crisis by learning the wrong lesson — that is, by resisting innovation rather than embracing it — as it is more urgent today than ever before.
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