ZURICH rule of surviving the recession

It’s been awhile since my last post. Things got crazy at home, then things got crazy at work… I do have to keep the ball rolling and this one is not much about what I do for a living but a more general issue of dealing with yourself and moving along…

 I found this interesting nugget about ZURICH mantra on Generation X Finance blog. Here it goes:

The other day I spoke in Zurich on Beating the Recession. As always, I tend to emphasize there are three possible routes:

1. Accept that the recession has simply highlighted what was inevitable and get out and put your resources, time, energy and people into something else. Mind-blowingly awful to execute short-term, but the only long-term viable option. Throwing money at it is well, generally, money down the drain.
2. Diversify. Spot what the markets are doing and provide. This could help you implement 1, above.
3. Get better at what you do. If you know your model is valid, then get better at what you do. And this can work well with 2, above.

To illustrate the power of 3: Get Better, I’ve created a simple simulation whereby delegates get a short period to run a company ’in recession’ and then apply various factors and notice the immediate turn-around. These factors are rarely common practice. For the group I spoke to, I wrapped them up into what I called the Zurich Mantra:

Z: Zen-like clarity of purpose and process. In many organizations and for individuals, purpose has become vague and processes have got worn. Improve both, you improve results.

U: Unstoppable desire to improve. Kaizen or never ending constant improvement. If you want things to be better, you need to better. Good is no longer good enough. Raise standards and results will improve.

R: Review and rehearse. In business we do not spend enough time doing either. Once we do, results improve.

I: I own the problem. Leadership is a mindset not a job title. Make It happen; never walk by a quality issue.

C: Chain-react teach this stuff. I encourage each delegate to go and quality teach these ideas to just two people. And each of these two, to quality teach two more people. Soon everybody has got it. That improves results.

H: because HOPE in a recession is not strategy.