Leading your company through a recession.

If you put 15 CEOs in a room and ask them to focus on one important question you get some very practical answers. The following list was compiled by the members of two Vistage CEO groups in the Bay Area chaired by Sterling Lanier.

CEO Driven Activities
- surround yourself with good advisors and seek their help
- focus on sales and staying close to customers
- continue spending on sales related activities
- focus on activities that increase cash flow
- use zero base budgeting and forecast on rolling 12 month basis
- make a cash forecast and action plan for sales down 30%

Get the entire checklist here.

Economic crystal ball.

The Institute for Trend Research will conduct an analysis of your company’s sales data to determine where it is in the business cycle, which indicators actually lead your business, and where you can expect to be in the next 12 months.

Bold claim, interesting business model. Instead of targeting Fortune 500 companies, their services are priced for midsize companies. Their chief marketing tool seems to be presentations and seminars for business owners, company presidents and CEOs. I stumbled upon this article which reported on a presentation at Baylor University thanks to a Google Alert for the CEO organization Vistage.

If it sounds too good to be true, you’ve got to love a company that backs up their offer with a money-back guarantee. “For 97% of companies we find relevant leading indicators and market trends that can be used to outperform the competition. For those 3% we can’t, we waive our fees.”

Should you advertise in a down economy?

Most of my clients own or manage midsize companies. Some are finding new opportunities and improving sales numbers during the current economic downturn. Others, not so much.

A few years ago, I developed a presentation that looks at advertising in a recession from the 30 thousand foot level. It asks a simple question: Why advertise in a down economy? This slide show walks you through the process I use in strategic planning sessions or workshops for CEOs and senior executives.

To view in full screen mode, click the SlideShare logo, then click the full screen icon on the slide show control bar. If you prefer a “flat” article, here’s a link that will help.

Also, here’s a post with questions the CEO of a midsize company should ask before cutting the marketing budget.

Does advertising really work?

This morning, Karen Renzi blogged about a discovery she made last week in the sketches of her 5-year-old daughter. In her words, “In the top is a “house” on blue, next a “fan” on pink, and last but not least, on the orange: Verizon. Ahh, the power of the brand: inspiring young minds everywhere.”

Ha! By the mid-80s, I’d been in the ad agency biz for several years. I was cynical about the effectiveness of my own snappy copy and “stunning” visuals. I figured I knew all the “tricks” so I couldn’t be tricked myself. Then, I found myself in a Home Depot one Saturday morning. A guy asked what I thought of the lawn mower we were both looking at. I didn’t have a clue, had never owned this kind of mower, didn’t even have a lawn. But there I was, telling this guy all about it… selling the thing like I was gonna get some huge commission if he took one home.

Yes, it’s a little scary that Karen’s little one is drawing Verizon’s logo on a Post-It note, but it’s harmless enough. At least she’s not selling lawn mowers at Home Depot based on deeply engrained subliminal messages from the advertising team at Toro… yet. :-)

10 business problems you can solve on the internet.

Most of my clients own or manage midsize companies. Some are tech-savvy, others not so much. None are able to spend a great deal of time worrying about the details of their marketing programs, especially the design and operation of their company websites.

A few years ago, I developed a presentation that looks at web strategy from the 30 thousand foot level. It asks a simple question: What is the most important business problem you can solve on the internet? This slide show walks you through the process I use in strategic planning sessions or workshops for CEOs and marketing teams.

In an hour, the execs have a strategy they can communicate to techies and creatives.

What business are you in?

When I work with a coaching client, I ask a lot of questions starting with…

– What business are you in?
– What products do you sell?
– What services do you provide?

When a potential customer takes a look at your website, brochure, mailer, biz card…

– What do you want them to learn?
– What do you want them to think?
– What do you want them to feel?
– What do you want them to know?
– What do you want them to do?

When it comes to websites, I ask…

– What problem(s) does your website solve?
– … for whom?

When I get a sense of the answers from my client’s perspective, I ask…

– How would your marketing team answer these questions?
– How about your sales team?
– How would your customers answer them?
– How do you know?

If the answer to the last question is not convincing — and it almost never is — I suggest that we work on finding a way to get solid answers to these questions before we do anything else. It is rare for a CEO, sales manager, marketing director and a select group of customers to agree on a description of a business and its products/services, let alone the message(s) they are trying to communicate.

If you think it is time to make sure your company is strategically aligned, here are some real world tools from Kevin Connolly, marketing guy.

What’s up with boomer marketing?

I’m 58. I was born near the leading-edge of the baby boom. I am not a “senior citizen.”

I once gave a local barber a dirty look and a piece of my mind when he offered me a senior discount. I should have shut up and kept the $5, but he caught me by surprise. I was only 55. Sheeeesh!

I was appalled when AARP sent me an invitation to join when I turned 50. A couple years later, I joined just to see what it was all about. I let my membership expire after deciding AARP is essentially an organization that exists to license its membership list to insurance companies and other marketers who target the “senior” demographic. Yeah, they do some lobbying, but they never asked me what I’d like them to lobby for so thanks, but no thanks.

Why advertise in a down economy?

OK, fine. Nobody likes the “R” word. But like it or not, we are smack dab in the middle of a recession. The question we all face is what do we do about it? You want to cut costs, but where? For some companies the decision is easy, the first cut they make is advertising. But you are not so sure.

I can think of eight solid reasons to continue advertising during a recession. They might even justify boosting your budget, but only if you are prepared to come out the other end as a market leader!

Can the king lead the revolution?

According to C.K. Prahalad, the University of Michigan management professor who coauthored the book “Competing For The Future,” this concept is based on the incorrect assumption that top managers can develop strategy and force everyone else to implement it.

In effective organizations, he says, real change is enabled by the people lower down in the organization who are closer to new technologies, to customers and competitors.

In an interview with strategy+business (3Q 96 p84), Dr. Prahalad said, “If you think about strategy as a revolution, as discovery, as innovation, as changing industry norms and industry patterns, then you must acknowledge that no monarchy has ever fomented its own revolution. In other words, senior management does not have a great propensity for change.”

So, how can you get the best ideas from people throughout your organization? Try this…