From a SEWN Perspective

Survival strategies come in many different flavors. Just as there are many ways to get into trouble, there are even more ways to get out of it. However, when mired in the middle of a crisis, most organizations don’t have a clear idea of where to turn. Some have a contingency plan for when the power goes out or when the computers get hacked. Unfortunately, very few have a strategy for the day their largest customer calls to say, “We are moving our business elsewhere.” Even worse, once an organization receives the news, it generally institutes stop-gap measures and hopes that the customer changes his mind and stays. While a normal human response, this reaction only delays the inevitable and turns a problem into a crisis.

Every successful survival strategy has one common ingredient — a planned sense of urgency. On their own, “survival” and “urgency” are not bad terms. They are actually key ingredients to everyday business accomplishment. Business leaders rely on their employees to have a sense of urgency when something breaks down or when a product is past due. Effective communication gets everyone focused on the desired result. Yet, when the business is forced into survival mode, the employees are usually kept in the dark. Managers who encourage their employees to ask for help when faced with a dilemma often do not follow their own advice when faced with an organizational crisis.

Last year’s departure of Lockheed in Newtown caused a crisis for a lot of local second- and third-tier suppliers. Some of those companies, the ones that reached out for help, are quickly turning the corner and moving away from a survival mode.  For those who acted with a sense of urgency, recovery plans were sometimes a simple as getting assistance to become ISO certified. Other plans may have included help from a matching grant like MATAAC. Still others required a strong dose of medicine in the form of financial re-structuring. Again, focused and systematic action formed the common thread for success.  These business leaders found that others have faced the same problems and that, once they began the discussions, help arrived in many way from many sources. Sometimes urgency is just making a phone call and asking for help.

To learn more about SEWN, please visit www.steelvalley.org or contact Greg Olson, SE Regional Director, 215-458-7580, sewnse@steelvalley.org.