Tuesday, November 25, 2008

12 Ways to Survive This Nuclear Winter (Part 1)

Josh Quittner is the consumer technology Editor-In-Chief for TIME Magazine. He recently spoke to the Arkansas Venture Forum and shared his thoughts on how entrepreneurs and firms who support them can weather this current economic "nuclear winter." He presented 12 strategies for success. This week I'll present the first 6. Part 2 next week will outline the second six.

  1. Have an "immigrant" ethic....be very careful with your money; work tirelessly
  2. Get cash flow positive NOW
  3. Outsource and distribute those things that are not essential to you
  4. Spend smart
  5. Get hypercompetitive and get aggressive in winning new business and delivering
  6. Focus on improving essential features, not nice-to-haves

More next week.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hello John,

I like the straightforward way he puts this- but there is always teh tough question of "What it a nice to have?"

When I led software organizations, (or business functions supported by them)one of the toughest things about release planning was getting consensus on what was absolutely needed vs. a nice to have.


One of the things I am doing most with these days is delegation (see my recent manifesto at www.changethis.com). Effectively delegated accountability is the key to high performance. So why the emphasis on centralized decisions when times get tough?

John Riggins said...

Barry-
I agree about delegating certain functions (and decisions). Now is the time to focus on the core busines and let experts help you with the other stuff.