Our reader poll today asks: Is your organization in the process of expanding or contracting?
- We’re growing and investing a lot behind that growth 39.03%
- We’re staying pretty stable and making some targeted investments 40.65%
- We’re cutting expenses and fighting to hold our market position 20.32%
Beware of cutting too much. While 20% of you are in cut and hold mode, you need to recognize 40% of the market is investing to grow. While you need to be mindful of expenses and not overextend yourself, recognize you’re taking a breather in the middle of the race and your competitors are trying to sprint ahead. Once you finish your pause, you might find yourself even further behind in the race and struggling to stay competitive. You can’t cut your way to long-term profitability so make sure you’re continuing to invest in growth areas while paring expenses in less strategically-important areas. And for those investing in growth, make sure you have a clear investment premise with performance milestones. Investing irresponsibly can cause you to trip and fall which gives the competition a moment to sprint ahead.
– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC
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These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.
