A crisis is a terrible thing to waste

Every now and then a crisis comes along and slaps you in the face. Sometimes you see it coming. Most often you don’t. Some crises are V shaped – they descend quickly, turn right around, and bounce back. Others are U shaped – they descend, bounce along the bottom for a while, and then gradually work their way back to normal.

All crises have two things in common. First, they all end. Second, they tend to change the prevailing order. The weak become strong. The strong become weak. The metaphorical deck gets re-shuffled and those at the bottom have a chance to rise to the top.

In evolution, it’s called “punctuated equilibrium”. A long period of stability – or equilibrium – is punctuated by brief periods of crisis. During the periods of equilibrium, there’s little change in the number of species or the relative position of species (who eats whom). During the “punctuations”, however, things change quickly. Species evolve, new species emerge, and some species die off.

If a problem is an opportunity, then a crisis is a massive opportunity. With the current financial crisis, it appears that we’re entering just such a period of opportunity now. The most agile companies are already plotting how to improve their position in the inevitable recovery. The press is awash with stories, for instance, about how major European banks plan to use the crisis to take market share away from their American competitors.

What’s your company’s strategy? Smart companies will use the crisis to get leaner and stronger. You’ll need a flexible information and business process platform. This is not the time to lock your business processes in a concrete shell. In a crisis, agility trumps size every time. Simplicity helps as well. You need to simplify your systems so your employees get the information they need to act quickly. Above all, you need to push authority downward and outward. Crises move too quickly for top-heavy, centralized command-and-control systems.

Can Lawson help? We’d like to think so. We offer flexible solutions that can simplify your operations and empower your employees. We also offer pre-packaged implementation plans that can help you move quickly. We’re certainly investing for the recovery. We’d like to help you as well.

As its name implies, The Lawson Opinionizer offers opinions. We believe we've got our facts straight but we don't guarantee it. A new Opinionizer appears every Monday. If you have an opinion, send an e-mail to Opinionizer@lawson.com

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