Being the Aggressor
I once had a basketball coach whose favorite saying was “Be the aggressor.” What he meant was that it was better to try to make things happen for your team than to wait and respond to what the other team was doing.
That phrase has come back to me lately, though this time it’s in reference to businesses, particularly those in the material handling industry. Anecdotal evidence shows that companies who are the “aggressors” during the downturn will be better positioned to take advantage of the economic rebound when (not if) it occurs. Companies like Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, and even Fortune magazine are a few of the entities that were established and flourished in bearish markets.
At one of the hospitality events I attended at ProMat, a MHEDA member and MHEDA Journal advertiser used this philosophy to explain why he was increasing his marketing while many of his competitors were pulling back. The basic point being, it’s often easier to capture the customer’s attention in times like these because there are fewer messages being put out there. The first instinct is to pull back and save money, but spending when others aren’t can give a better value. It’s an interesting perspective, and a topic that we will be discussing in an upcoming issue of The MHEDA Journal.
Be the aggressor. It seems to work in business as well as on the basketball court.
Tags: economy, material handling, small business
January 27th, 2009 at 10:41 pm
[...] employees to 50 and add 3-5 facilities. It’s an attitude like that that I referred to in my post from a few days ago. Taking a positive attitude and looking to get through the downturn and come out positive on the [...]