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Dot-Com Profit Advice From a Profit Expert Yes, Dorothy, profits do matter. It doesn’t take the Wizard of Oz to recognize that we’re not in the Dot-Com Kansas of the whirlwind 1990’s updraft anymore. Dot-Coms and investors are crashing to earth like wrecked houses. The difficult journey down the yellow brick road is now seen more clearly. The perils that the Wicked Witch of The West had hidden from us until we could no longer turn back are now exposed. Not that there ever was a way back once that first step was taken. Unlike Oz not everyone survives but like Oz those who should survive somehow do. In our modern Oz, the yellow brick road ends in the Emerald City – green and prosperous from profits. The Tin Man has his heart, the Lion has his courage, Dorothy has her knowledge of what home really is, and the Scarecrow has his brain. They have made it down the road through the corporate maturity stages of work, sell, cut, and buy to finally become capable of innovative thinking to create a sustainable future. The curtain has been drawn back on the illusions that it only takes money to shortcut the process or that an addiction to working all the time will justify success. Euphoria temporarily suspended the laws that reality is now bringing back. The basic economic laws have not been repealed. This new economy must too provide a return on investment to survive. Cash burn and cash return are now moving to their proper positions. The road is littered with skeletonized URL’s. Fortunes have melted under the rain of expectation and impatience. As of year end the NASDAQ lost over 50% of its peak year 2000 value and hundreds of e-wannabees are mere dust on the landscape. What’s next? Those that will survive will likely adhere to some of these basic business principles:
Follow your dreamers but make sure the dream is articulated and clear. Balance the dreamers with finance and operating people who know what the company should look like in the end…otherwise your dream may become a nightmare. It’s a balance between working, selling, cutting, and buying that only comes with thinking. The thinking organization has the maturity and intellectual capital to succeed where others fail. The truly aggressive companies will have their Profit Improvement Processes in place and their staff trained in Cost-Effective Organization thinking. They will be the companies that are more likely to survive and prosper. Those that are temporarily confused under the crush of changing expectations will use Creative Problem Solving to create a path to success. In worst cases, they will turn to turn-around experts. We don’t have to be wizards in an Emerald City to know what’s right. The best practices for business are all around us. The real challenge is to cut through the clutter and the distractions and work the fundamentals, to follow the yellow brick road. Yes, in our Oz the road branches many times and the perils we face are at least as severe as those for Dorothy and her band. But, in the end, we start with an advantage. Unlike the Scarecrow, we already all have a brain. Now all we have to do is think creatively to survive and prosper.
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Cost Reduction & Profit Improvement
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