Archives

101 ways to surviving the downturn

There are huge assortments of books written on business – mainly on the “What”, “Why” and “How”. A significant number even offers to enlighten us on strategies to adopt during a crisis. In the furniture world, many of us often find ourselves subscribing to one or even a couple of the myriad tactics advocated. In our previous issue, Tom Leon, the President of International Marketing and Development of Ashley Furniture Industries, highlighted the importance of offering value to customers and one’s drive for success. Jia Qingwen, chairman of the China National Furniture Association, saw the current recession as an opportunity for the Chinese industry to transform from Made-in-China to Created-in-China; set quality standards and embrace modern management.

In this issue, Ernie Koh, Marketing Director of Koda Ltd shares with us how the Blue Ocean Strategy prompted his company to seek out new market spaces and thereby eliminating competition as regulations become irrelevant (pg 20-22). Koh did so by bringing Koda and its customers a firm step towards green. Koda’s R&D and corporate success also sets the tone for our special Project Green feature (pg 19-21) as we bring you the highlights of this industry’s environmentally innovative manufacturers.

Besides being green, Michael Amini, Chairman/CEO/Founder of Armini Innovation Corp (AICO), speaks for the importance of being aggressive, staying focused and sustaining strong marketing efforts to succeed in face of the downturn (pg 30-31). Surely watching costs is imperative but going to the extent where a company becomes invisible (no A&P and no exposure to clients) may ruin a business altogether.

Michael Buckley, an established hardwood consultant observes in his article (pg 36-37) that everyone at every corner turning to their domestic market when export business takes a dive. Compared with running an export business, selling local requires different skill-sets. If going local is a stop-gap strategy to help a company tie-over the current crisis, having to realign an entire company’s structure, systems and processes may not be advisable. It is time consuming and by the time everything is in-sync, the global economy may have recovered. Would the company then realign itself and all of its resources towards export again? Running both export and local sales concurrently for a newbie is risky unless a company commands the right expertise and is able to devote sufficient resources necessary for each of the divisions of export and local sales.

There are 101 ways (and more) to survive the current disaster. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. Fortunately, regardless of the economic condition, there will always be buyers (and consumers) who are ready to part with their money. Like what Leon, as well as Stuart Pilling of Winchester Furniture UK (Talking Point, pg 42), so aptly puts - what a business needs is to provide real value and not price (because there is always someone who can do it cheaper). Value is a function of cost versus benefit. It may be manifested in different combinations of factors such as product quality, price, customer service, branding etc. It is largely dependent on your target market.

In essence, it is about having the right product, right quality at the right price. The trick is to find out what is right. Perhaps this is the time for all of us to revisit the fundamentals of our business.

Casey Loo
Publisher / Editor-In-Chief