The news are filled with it and most people are filled with fear because of it, and the society changes a lot because of it. The financial crisis has gotten to all of us, not only the stockmarkets as we others hoped for a while... it couldn´t happen to us could it?
Most companies focus on surviving the financial crisis by being more economic; they cut down on costs which seems redundant. By doing this, managers seem to forget to look ahead, which is overshadowed by the chaotic present. This is a dangerous trap. And the costs we most often cut down on are innovation costs. Risky!
Lets look at this as an example:
Microsoft once trumped IBM. Why? Becuse IBM was too busy guarding its flank against Fujitsu and Siemens (which were the most obvious competitors) that they didn´t see Microsoft coming (like we are too busy guarding our flanks against the financial crisis). Michal Hammer, reeingeniring guru, distilled this phenomenon in a 1990 article in the Harvard Business Review. The first three decades of the computer revolution, he wrote; "we´re all about "caving the cows paths". That is, we spent 30 years automating.. yesterdays procedures. The cow paths often didn´t lead to where we needed to go. They were codifications of yesterday´s maps.
We musn´t forget to use the opportunities that lies in the financial crisis. This situation is unique in its kind, there are more possibilities in a turbulent periode than in a lineare and stable time.
When the financial crisis has stabilized, the companies which have focused on innovation and throwing themselves at the opportunities which have come during the turbulent times (when most companies are blinded by handling the financial crisis) will be the new winners.
After the storm... we´ll se how the market has changed and who are the new market leaders.
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