Hey! Do you really want to lead through inflation?
Then my question to you is, “Do you really believe that leading through inflation needs a new playbook?”
or
Do you just believe with the current talent and frameworks that you have now can be enough leading through inflation?
The reason why I raised those questions to you is, to have clarity first as “I shared many times; “confidence is never a substitute to clarity”.
When you have clarity, you’re more focused. Where ever your focus goes, that area expands?
If you focus on every area of your business which is, of course, important too, you’ll be lost on the priorities as your focus is everywhere.
For this, you got to have clarity on the most essential priorities that you should be focusing on so that you funnel the entire business process and systems of the organization so that those reflect exactly opposite which keeps you growing an upward spiral.
So, what are some of those essential priorities which you got to focus on now on leading through inflation?
1. Bulletproof Mindset:
Let’s understand this in much deeper clarity with stupid logic so that you can understand and connect to what I am sharing because, stupidity always burns your time and energy, and at the same time, if you realize, it changes your life and business now.
What is mindset?
The mind never resides within the body, and it’s never our own. It’s just content in a different form. Right from childhood, from your parents to siblings to teachers to friends to someone, you kept on learning something, and you learned something more out of it.
That means you are not born with information or something called “born talent”.
Every data in your body is fed by someone or by something (a set) in your life and it’s just recycled and recycling.
The brain does not produce consciousness but acts as a kind of receiver that “picks up” the fundamental consciousness that is all around us, and “transmits” it into our own being.
That means nothing fresh and nothing is yours. That sounds more spiritualistic right, Yeah it is because, in the end, the reality is, we are just a spirit.
I hope by now you got clarity on the mind, getting information from different sources and storing it in one specified place or state of your body is a mindset.
It’s that simple. Many breaks their head for a lifetime to figure out, “what is mindset?“
How did we develop it, through the above process?
Now let’s look into “What is bulletproof”
Did you ever heard of a bulletproof car or bulletproof jackets:
If someone targets you which you might be aware or may not be aware of, and If they shoot you sharply laser-focused, chances are that you may not get hurt or the bullet won’t hit your body.
Isn’t it.
So, now same way if someone targets you, let’s say your competitor or you got a default target with some market crash, chances are you immediately get affected by those external shots after shots from various areas in life which we can call those difficult circumstances or simply put it bluntly as “events“.
If you’re bulletproofed, you may not hurt. It’s that simple.
Now you might be thinking, oh my goodness, “stupid, it’s that simple”
That’s why I said, Let me explain to you with a stupid logic of why it is called “Bulletproof Mindset'” than just mindset.
It’s because, no matter what, you shouldn’t get hurt or react to external events with some poor mindset.
Why it happens is because “Garbage in garbage outright”.
You got to stop the garbage going in and start responding with the innate intelligence that’s within you which you got when you’re born.
The majority doesn’t sharpen it because they never spared time and energy to think of it and also probably the environments you grew were like that.
So, You got to respond to that event with intelligence that’s within you which isn’t filled with any information or data.
With the kind of interpretation you respond to, the outcome will be accordingly.
So, the first thing in this period, for you leading through inflation is “you got to develop a bulletproof mindset”, so that you can allow your innate intelligence to function and serve the markets.
If you look into what markets are doing and try to do the same or something similar, then the decision-making will not be in your hands. You got to dance as per markets.
When you lose your decision-making capacity, you’re going to produce that something already in the market in just a different form, but results too will be similar.
And in the current market situation, developing the right bulletproof mindset is most important so that you can stay focused on your vision, mission, and value of your organization which helps you have the right alignment of values and offer value in each and everything you do.
Leading through inflation, conducting your business with the right bulletproof mindset is most important.
2. Cash flow Forecasting:
The most important thing is having continuous cash flow generation as “if cash not coming in, cash going out remains the same, soon you be out of the business” as cash dries off soon.
Cash is oxygen in business.
So forecast on an old-fashioned basis to make a clear cash outflow forecast on the most likely risks, so that from out of the net cash flow, the company can prioritize on what is required for the longevity of the business, and to stay in business winning against the competition.
To stay in the game and to increase the cash inflow:
✔ You should proactively promote your business, and for that, you need money for marketing, branding, and advertising.
✔ You should be innovating something in the short-term to bring fresh value to market place so that your product or services justify higher product pricing.
✔ You should need some investments to work on the value chain which certainly can reduce the cost in variables “which helps in quick breakeven and ROI”.
You got to deeply look into certain CAPEX (Capital Expenditure) or OPEX (Operational Expenditure) which is very necessary to safeguard the future without destroying the present business which could be the second immediate priority.
3. Innovation.
This is mission-critical, so certainly you should behave with “more focused innovation” and this continuous innovation mindset is most important in an organization as a whole.
✔ You have to have more focused innovation being customer-obsessed with the right customer insights to know “what customer is willing to pay more for the higher price” so that you put more efforts in that area with innovation.
✔ In these times where the expenses of everything are increasing which you have to pay for which you cannot avoid or escape, it’s ok for your organization to be incremental so that you be ready and can face any worst circumstances that come in your journey of conducting customer-obsessed business. The worst circumstances which you cannot ignore and also you should not be ignoring any other things too.
I have learned from my mentor Dr. Ram Charan, while he designed strategies he observed that, “the greatest innovation mistake that companies made in the 70s was not increasing the price, but rather shortchange the product”.
That strategy backfired and hurt many brands for decades.
✔ Your products and/or services should remain fresh and new which can show that they are of high value to justify a high price.
✔ This is not the time to compete with a price war, this is the time to have more focused innovation in each and everything that you do and offers to gain more value from the marketplace serving with higher value.
✔ Focus from within and serve the markets, focusing on markets and trying to do what others do may cost you which you may not afford.
4. Investment:
Additional CAPEX (Capital Expenditure) is most important for building the capacity of the business without ignoring maintenance.
✔ You need investment to hire new talent, you got to invest in yourself and the existing talent of your organization and many other areas those we considered in cash flow forecasting and focused innovation.
If you don’t develop new capabilities and hire the right talent, chances of getting the same result your organization is producing in the past may also be a minimal chance.
You can’t build something new with the old.
And many organizations postpone maintenance, and also never look into investments as investments, rather they consider them like expenses.
You got to treat business like a business, If you behave cheap then achieving greatness or surviving in business will be very minimal.
Think of when you’re not taking your car for regular periodic maintenance thinking that you haven’t used much, and all of a sudden after a year or so when you’re driving, it gives sudden trouble.
It is due to a lack of periodic maintenance. You use or don’t use, you have to get periodic maintenance for longevity.
Similarly, you can’t postpone maintenance in building and growing your business.
Don’t do that mistake. It will come back to trouble you at the wrong time which may suffocate the entire organization.
Think about “how inflation will change not just your organization, but your entire industry, and work backward from perspective.
Have you ever seen the news that many startups are raising funds series after series, investor after investor, existing large companies raising funds, and collaborating to have continuity of the business?
Cash is oxygen in business. You need continuous investment.
One of the biggest problems you can ever see in any organization that’s suffering is, “lack of talent” and “not developing existing talent”. It’s a sin of management.
So, additional investments are a must which you need to consider and have to do whatever it needed to fulfill the requirement.
I don’t have money is never the solution in business.
What will happen if you say the same when someone is hospitalized and in severe condition, many times many have sold everything to raise money to overcome that situation and save the patient?
So, why not in business, that is just about one person’s health; here it is the entire organization’s health which you can’t.
To develop such business acumen and mindset you need additional investment along with what is considered in cash flow forecasting.
5. Digitization:
This is the most essential priority in your business if you haven’t yet digitized your business, you got to act superfast.
If you ask me when, I will say, “right now this moment, start to working on this high priority”.
Digitization is the core existential of any business in today’s era.
If you don’t digitize, you will die definitely, no matter what business you’re into, this is the core existential.
Not digitizing your business is riskier than digitizing your business; you must never lose focus in this, no matter what happens.
If you don’t work on the real data and analytics in real-time, you will definitely lose the ability to quickly react or respond which may cost you a fortune.
I have been sharing posts on this since 2017.
Pre-Covid, people didn’t realize as many forward-thinking companies too thought, it’s time to do in 2025 and later, but due to Covid, we are almost 60 months ahead and whomever they have digitized their businesses have literally prospered.
People who were too slow pre-covid, and who are running their businesses with the same mindset and culture are suffocating. Many in this category mindset and culture, still thinking, my business doesn’t need digitization or can be digitized. No business can escape from it. Every business needs to be digitized.
More than 17 years before when I bought a shirt of one size bigger, I got a gift coupon (offered in collaboration by another industry brand) to reduce the weight by 4 to 5 Kg. This probably wasn’t accurate, but they digitized by then. I didn’t surprise by then as many international brands were much ahead, but was really impressed with the advanced move by this Indian retailer.
But the sad part is, some years later, they behaved again like every other traditional enterprise.
That’s why I said continuity in business and more focused innovation should be evergreen.
Now in this such an inflationary period, connecting your enterprise digitally, don’t you think having the real consumer insights and their spending data which helps your organization prosper much faster than your competition is mandatory and it’s existential.
If you don’t increase the speed of change and don’t be an innovator or early adopter, chances of running a business will become more critical.
Data is the new oil and it is the new currency. Don’t you want to encash on every opportunity in your business?
So take action right now and in this right moment.
6. Fixing bottlenecks:
Have you ever got stuck in traffic jams where you would be driving in wide lanes and those all of the sudden become a narrow and single line, and you probably got stuck for a long time?
In cities in many areas it happens as there will be bottleneck lanes and as soon as you come out of those, you feel like it’s a rebirth.
Is something familiar now?
Now, look into your business what all those bottlenecks you have to eliminate.
Eliminate frictions and bottlenecks everywhere in the business. Otherwise, you will suffocate and die. If you had experienced this or experiencing now, then it’s time for you to take action on high priority.
Knowing the problem, knowing the solution never helps you in business. You got to troubleshoot to see transformative results so that you can quickly fix it and keep growing.
Remember, never try to fix what’s not broken. Many do this mistake too.
✔ Eliminating bottlenecks in marketing and sales, supply chain, and operations especially is a must and mission-critical.
✔ If you drag on the business in this inflation period, it will cost you more and the inventory in the pipeline will become more expensive as inflation grows.
So, eliminate friction and fix bottlenecks across the value chain.
Those are the most essential priorities any organization has to focus on for leading through inflation and thriving in business.
If you need any help in strategizing and creating a new playbook, do send me a private message and I will be very happy to help you with my 52 weeks C-Suite Phenomena where I handhold and support you to help you quadruple your business and 100X your productivity.
Check what people are saying about the C-Suite Phenomena;
Add alt text
Add alt text
Add alt text
Do share this with your loved ones and other colleagues so that as a community we can help as many entrepreneurs as we can, as there is nothing called competition as we are in a collaboration era.
Do share your key takeaways and how you’re going to implement and what actions you’ll be taking.
Stay tuned for the next series tomorrow where I explain “6 Essential Priorities Need To Be Considered By Every Company During Inflation”
Ok, Thank you, be awesome and prosper
For your wealth
Harshzad K
Let’s BIE HUB.
#inflation #recession #inflationstrategies #leadership #wealthywisdom
