Lately, we've been talking quite a bit about how to survive the downturn. We've offered a range of resources, tips and advice for dealing with the economic crisis at hand. Whether it's the wisdom of Professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter in "Four Actions to Survive the Recession and Emerge Triumphant" or Hernan Saenz's and Darrell Rigby's strong ideas in Winning in Turbulence, we've tried to offer an array of voices speaking to this critical issue.
But often the most effective voices comes from those of you on the front lines dealing with the downturn every minute of every day. I had a chance to hear one of those voices from the podium at a recent Online Publishers Association gathering. His name is Peter Horan, CEO of Goodmail Systems, and he's a jovial entrepreneur who has been working in Silicon Valley since 1977; Horan exudes entrepreneurial zest and happens to have a spate of Silicon Valley wins behind him, having sold three companies in the past five years, including About.com (which the New York Times Company bought for more than $400 million).
Horan isn't all doom and gloom, but he is tenacious. It's his hard-won success--even through the dot-com collapse--that has taught him brutal lessons about growth during the down cycle. Not surprisingly, Horan's mantra is cut costs now. And while there's nothing new about that concept, Horan's no-nonsense lessons paint a stark picture of how tough things have become -- and they also may reflect a zeitgeist of fear and loathing that's gripping CEOs of all stripes.
Here are some of Horan's rules for companies that want to survive the downturn:
1) Survivors are lean, mean and nakedly aggressive. Cost cutting is mandatory. Horan says that he knows he has cut enough of the workforce when he "wakes up with cold sweats because I fear that I won't be able to ship product."
2) Lead from the front. Horan calls the CEO the "Chief Energy Officer" and urges leaders to demonstrate almost relentless vibrancy to the troops. "They need to see in you the confidence that we're going to survive this thing," says Horan.
3) Fail cheap and fail often. This comes with the territory of web start-ups in particular where the need for constant experimentation has become a routine part of business.
4) Communicate and then over-communicate. His analogy here is that when the airplane ride gets bumpy, everyone wants to hear from the captain immediately to know that everything is fine--but buckle up.
5) Flat is NOT the new up. Horan sees the downturn as a time when companies should be stealing market-share and not crouching in a defensive posture by saying that "flat is better than down."
6) Don't just stand there, do something. The tendency, says Horan, is for companies, especially large companies, to get caught up in committees and stagnation. This kills you in tough times - keep pursuing the almighty buck, says Horan. He exhorts a move swiftly approach. Catch your competitors standing still.
7) Great fortunes are built in bad times. This one is a cliché, to be sure, but it's a good one to remember - if nothing else but for a dash of inspiration.
That's what Horan thinks. Is he right? Is he tapping into the naked truth or just way too impulsive and possibly over-caffeinated? You tell us. What would your personal survival guide list look like?
Joshua Macht is the Executive Director of HarvardBusiness.org
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