This ADVENTURE CAPITALIST by U. Mahesh Prabhu was first published in Business Goa
If you are concerned about the adverse effects of recession then the following parable is just for you:
Long time ago in Middle-east a traveller met a curious looking fellow. “Who are you? Where are you headed?” he asked. “I am Cholera. I am going to kill five thousand people in Egypt”, said the stranger and resumed his journey. Few years passed and they happened to meet again. The former asked the latter, “You had said that you’d kill only five thousand people; but you killed fifty thousand, instead.” “No, No”, said Cholera, “I killed only five thousand people; the rest died of fear.”
The bad (or worst?) thing about recession is the fear it generates in the minds of people. Business people are worried about their profits, employees are concerned about the jobs and government is apprehensive about their political capital. As a result, they all curb their spending which make markets less lucrative and several business suffer.
But then is recession really bad? On a philosophical terms, like Life, Economy too is cyclical. Boom and Recession are two phases of economic cycle. None can reverse this fact. Until recently the People’s Republic of China did try to run an economy by an iron fist but eventually they too realized that it was futile effort. When they loosed their grip and let people sell and buy according to their whims and fancies the entire stock market collapsed like a pack of cards.
Recessions aren’t that bad. Some of the biggest and most successful companies in the world, including Microsoft, FedEx, GE, Revlon Cosmetics and Hyatt, were started during the recession. From GE in the 1800s to FedEx in the 1970s, these businesses are still going strong.
All business leaders and managers must understand that during recession it’s easy to panic. Panic, which is essentially a fear driven and not fact based emotion, has significant negative impact. You don’t want to give into panic and throw your hands in the air and get into a self-destruction mode. So you’ve to take the alternate route; rather than giving yourself to fear and flowing with negative emotions you can consider the event as a change. By this you’ll be able to see opportunities, make the right choices and realize the due positive results.
It doesn’t matter which business you own or run the following are 9 key points you’d need to adhere to:
Author is Hon. Director – CGRI, Consultant – BW | Businessworld, Adviser – Exchange4media and President of Technoved Consulting Pty Ltd (Australia). He can be reached via email: indiamahesh@gmail.com