Democrat and Chronicle staff and wire reports

(Monday, February 4, 2002) -- Pierre Mourier, author of Conquering Organizational Change: How to Succeed Where Most Companies Fail, offers the following advice for businesses to survive during a recession:

• Identify your key players and circle the wagons. Pinpoint the most important people in your organization and keep them close to you. Seek their advice, reward them generously and find out what you can do to make them happy.
• Get closer to your customers and be aware of your competition. Make sure you know how your customers have been, or may be, affected by turbulent times. Bring customers into the organization for consultation or visit them at their place of business.
• Reconfirm the strategy of the business. Should the strategy change as a result of what is going on in the environment to create uncertainty? Should it change as a result of what is going on with customers or competitors?
• During uncertain times it is more important than ever to maintain strong alliances across the organization and potentially with other organizations such as suppliers, vendors and perhaps even selected customer groups.