Recession Proofing Overview:

Recession Proofing requires a new way of business thinking. You can no longer actively plan for prosperity without simultaneously planning for a recession. A recent survey revealed that only 24% of all US businesses in 2008 had a plan for coping with a recession.

Laying off employees is usually the first option when it should be the very last. The real solution is controlling wasted resources.

Wasted resources are not always easily seen. It often goes without notice, or when noticed, it is treated as a luxury or ignored as an acceptable excess.

At present day prices, these excesses have become too costly to tolerate. Competition won't stand for them.

Business's big problem has been sharply defined. It has to pin responsibility down. In the past, most of the blame for waste has been placed on the shoulders of everyone but the top executive. It is high time someone looked the issue straight in the eye and defined the obligation with respect to waste.

If this top executive is you, you had better get busy and do something about it, and don't pass the buck. Perhaps you don't know exactly how to proceed. Well, here's a simple method. Start with yourself. That's important. Otherwise, you won't have time to follow through the program.

Keep a detailed record of your own time for a period of two weeks. Note with whom time was spent and the subjects dealt with. If you analyze this record, you will probably arrive at the same conclusion as did one very capable executive, the president of a medium-sized company.

She found that 95 percent of her time was being consumed by insignificant problems of the moment that could have been handled by her subordinates. She didn't have time for more important functions of far-sighted planning and overall direction.