Credit crunch? dodging the knockout punch!

SALMAAN SAHEEDULLAH Consultant - Creative Cohort

Global warming/recessions and wars have augmented the cost of living. Individuals opt to survive by digging deeper into their wallets while organisations go the extra mile cutting down on resources.

In fact history is repeating itself, bad times come and go. However, this time around measures could be taken to minimise effects on businesses, in turn benefiting stakeholders. This article encourages organisations to make positive decisions regarding their current policies and business norms, challenging an upgrade to those of western standards, for the betterment of the nation.

A simple concept, ‘Going Green’ is widely emphasised by many research organisations (Gartner, Forrester, McKenzie etc).

The Western norm, is telecommuting a.k.a. ‘Working Naked’. With improvements in communication technologies and free software such as Skype, managers should consider trusting few employees by offering flexible work hours ‘Working from home’.

The choice of which employees or functions to commence with is a decision to be made at the next board meeting. Proof is in the pudding; many findings not only justify the financial benefits but also the positive aspects, enhancing work-life balance and responsible parenting.

Further enabling differently-able citizens, contribute to the knowledge economy.

Next would be to ‘Go Green’ on IT related costs, revolutionising the way organisations think, implement, deploy, and use IT systems infrastructure. Reducing energy consumptions and their environmental ‘carbon footprint’. Three areas considered here are hardware, software and best-practices (human factor). Careful and accurate groundwork is critical for both scenarios above, as a single solution may not fit all.

Available options should be evaluated against security, flexibility, performance and human efficiency etc.

Moving from green landscapes, to the blue oceans of business systems. It is essential that business applications deliver ‘Business Intelligence’ (BI) and ERP systems are ideal. However many constraints hold back budgeting for an ERP. Alternate Open Source solutions yield higher ROIs, again many ‘Critical success factors’ stand tall.

Considering SMBs running systems in silos, lacking comprehensive ERP/Reporting systems, the most viable substitute to BI would be to use reporting platforms, or data integration tools which add a whole new dimension to standard reporting, providing that much needed competitive advantage.

Also remodeling business processors to be more efficient becomes even more critical today as wasteful practices needs elimination.

Questioning the expenses of advertising budgets and its effectiveness in a modern world, (may not apply to all industries) the point to ponder is, with the advent of Cable TV, Internet and changing lifestyles, how effective are conventional marketing practices? It’s time to bring on ‘Lean and Mean Marketing’.

Industries have their ups and downs, which makes it risky to depend on single performers, whilst macro factors brunt them. Thus Sri-Lanka should look at diversification. ‘Online marketing strategies’ should be aimed at a global audience all at once, this is crucial for the growth of SMBs and industries we never knew could appeal to a global village. I.e. if tourist used to buy ornaments made out of seashells, and they don’t sell anymore, perhaps advertising on ‘E-Bay’ may bring in some foreign currency?

This is just one example, Mother-Lanka is forever giving, it’s only that innovative ideas should be brought forth to create substitute products that are internationally marketable, which would help solve some of our employment problems as well.However the Internet is a powerful marketing tool and businesses shouldn’t be left out on this modern vehicle.

Similarly, there are many tactics and strategies which specialised (Business-IT) consultants should cater to. Another potential ‘cash cow’ is the BPO/KPO industry. However Gartner has labelled our market a ‘problem child’ (http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=10388).

We should revisit our strategies and seek to play to our strengths, i.e. with the economic boom in the Middle East, Sri-Lanka could focus on outsourcing contracts from countries it has established good relationships with, taking things a step further by educating citizens to speak ‘Arabic’, supplementing it by bridging the communication gap, connecting migrant workers.

Thus understanding foreign culture and improving service standards.

In today’s knowledge age the Government should grant special concessions, helping skilled executives venture into entrepreneurship offering BPO/KPO services to a local clientele, facilitated by quality certifications and case studies published periodically, which would effectively create highly skilled expert groups who could gradually expand their services to a global clientele.

However proficiency in English is essential. Hence ‘Islandwide’ is a good place to start, simply by including an ‘English word/sentence of the day box’ (translation and transliteration) in a native newspaper, encouraging the use of ‘subtitles’ instead of dubbing TV programmes, will definitely spread the ‘English Language’ fever. Thereafter one to one/many counseling on writing skills could be arranged even between a farmer and a CEO in Colombo.

Eventually paving the way for stay at Home moms to work on simple undemanding online tasks, pouring in foreign income at a micro level, however an expert group should caution against scams.

Last but not least, what better time to help the needy than during a predicament! Organisations shouldn’t abandon CSR; Sri-Lankans are generous and helpful by spirit. Giving back to society has to continue.

The writer invites organisations to implement viable, timely and creative CSR projects.