Its not without reason some of us wonder about what to do and what to avoid, but in some cases everything has gone really well and regardless of what’s happening business has boomed, the big worry now is to keep it up , but how do you secure your momentum, when it looks a bit gloomy around you?

I must say that it has been great 2022 for many of us and for a lot of companies, but there are companies that are struggling or at least would like to avoid any possible recessions glooming in 2023 or 2024 for that matter.

If things are great for you, I must recommend that you avoid doing any major changes in your organisation, if you must it can and will have consequences for you, however be careful what you wish to change, you might get it and ad some issues at the same time.

In some of the companies we are working with its obvious business is booming, and at least half 2023 is looking good, but beyond Q1-Q3 its a bit blurry to try and figure out what waiting for us.

Its not easy to try and understand what will happen due to that their are quite a few hurdels waiting for us around the corner if we don’t move with care.

Anyway, we all have to prepare as good as we can, and try to at least have some preplanned options to choose from once and if external factors decide to force our business sideways.

Its not as easy to decide just by doing what everyone else are doing, and its not as easy to do what no-one else is doing, in most cases its better to soldier on with what you are doing and if you suddenly can’t grow your business or if you can’t raise your prices, then its time to find som alternative ways to gain the momentum back into your business.

Its one thing to solve issues once the horse has already bolted and another thing to plan ahead and be able to avoid issues by making sure you don’t put yourself in harms way by taking the wrong decisions.

I have already seen some bad decisions due to companies don’t take the time to to get a second opinion in time or at least question their own decisions enough.

In other cases they take the easy way out when they can’t grow anymore and the expect to earn less in the near future by just cutting the workforce, expecting to rehire once business is back, the problem today is that its not as easy anymore to find and hire a great workforce, especially if the workforce know you will not support them in times of difficulties.

Interesting enough looking back at the pandemic, quite a few people were fired from surtain branches and once business was back some companies were erlier out rehiring than others, once they had sucked up the best ones, the rest och the companies have been struggling finding the right people available in a already booming market.

The big issue going forward is that it might not be as easy to rehire people in the future for many reasons, one major hurdle is that quite a lot will not value a company if they are expected to work out of an office in the future, especially not the best people that have a choice.

They say that family companies are the slowest to fire and slowest to rehire employees, that is changing due to external factors, major companies are to fast to let people go or worse, they let employees choose if they would like to leave by offering packages for those who decide to go by them selfs.

As an employee, its great to be offered a choice if I would stay or leave by my own decision, but out of an company view I would probably loose the best ones and be left with the ones who don’t expect to fina any new jobs easily if they would have decided to leave.

Anyway big or small, your major investment is into who you have working for you, especially , if they are capable of making money during difficult times, one thing is for sure, you don’t want to be stuck with the wrong employees in times of trouble.

I know its difficult to hear what you don’t want to hear, but in many cases its about being aware of what’s happening and taking the right decisions, you can only do that with the right information, and sadly enough you will not always get that from your on board.

You might need someone external telling/helping you with the right decisions, it might not be me, but don’t shoot the messenger, its hard enough having to be the one giving you the truth or at least what he or she thinks is the truth now a days

Christopher
Bell Blomquist Consulting
Managing Director