Five Recession Busting Tips

1. Understand what’s going on It sounds simple, but think long and hard about how the changing environment you operate in is impacting on your organisation. Have you considered how changes relate to your core competencies, assets and stakeholders? How will your funding mix change over the next 12 months?

2. Make good decisions Concentrate on managing income, costs, quality and risk. Drop or defer cash-sapping activities with relatively low social return, but consider growing activities with a high social return to cost ratio. By taking advantage of opportunities created by the recession you’ll be focused on growth rather than rebuilding what you had last year!

3. Stay well informed Timely, accurate information keeps you on top of your changing environment, your cash, your social return and emerging opportunities.  Identify what you need to know to meet tips 1 & 2 and put mechanisms in place to keep your knowledge current.

4. Plan An increase in uncertainty and/or unpredictability creates an increase in possible outcomes. A good plan is a framework which supports decision-making by considering the most likely outcome(s) given the aims of an organisation and the environment in which it operates.  So create a number of ‘what-ifs’ to evaluate and plan your options.

5. Invest in your people The skills of employees and volunteers probably represent most of the core competencies of your organisation. Your ability to adapt to meet the changing environment, the challenges and the opportunities, will depend on the skills and application of your employees and volunteers.