Most entrepreneurs are flat of playing defense in this recession.
They are not playing to win, but to lose less. Then they complain about awful the recession is.
This whole line of thinking is completely flawed.
In boom economies, there are companies that fail. In down economies, there are companies that win.
Winning and losing has nothing to do with the economy. It has everything to do with being noticeable different and better than competitors.
BUT the big difference in a recession is this. If you want your business to grow in a recession, the only way is to take the business from your competitors period.
You’re going to want to re-read that last sentence carefully.
The math on this simple. In a shrinking economy, the overall size of the economic pie gets smaller. The only way to grow is to get a bigger size of the pie – pure and simple.
Most business owners completely miss this fundamental point.
They spend their time obsessed with the doom and gloom news, rather than keeping a pulse on how customer needs have shifted and on finding and exploiting competitor weaknesses.
That’s a big mistake.
But there is one company that is so massively and overwhelmingly on the offensive. That company is McDonalds.
Sales at McDonalds are up this year over last – yes they grew.
The growth wasn’t enormous, but in this environment any year-over-year growth is great.
As I like to say, a win is a win. It may not be pretty, but I’ll take it.
If you the leaders at McDonalds are happy to take the win, kick back, and take a vacation for the rest of the recession, you
would be wrong. Dead wrong.
Instead they just launched (in a really big way) McCafe -McDonald’s answer to Starbucks.
Their model is coffee that is 70% as good as Starbucks for half the price. Will it work, only time will tell.
But the point is a company that could legitimately coast in this recession is doing the exact opposite.
Their ambition is none other than to cut Starbucks off at the knees, put them out of business, and take all their billions in revenue away from them.
Brutal? Yes.
Harsh? Yes.
Necessary? Absolutely.
Look if you’re into everybody in your industry holding hands, singing cumbyah, and expecting everyone’s business to grow, you’re going to be waiting an awfully long time in this recession.
This is war.
For you to win, a competitor is going to lose.
Welcome to the real world. Best to get used to the idea and find a way to beat your competitors.
Heck, McDonalds is even though they don’t have to. Why shouldn’t you be doing the same?
Loved this analysis! Great post!