According to all global financial and macroeconomic indicators, we are entering a financial crisis with undesirable consequences for companies that do not know how to weather the storm.  

Metaphors aside, there is common agreement that any company that serves a market in crisis (more expensive or scarce inputs, more expensive or scarce funding, contracted demand, more aggressive competitors, etc.) you will need to focus on improving the efficiency of your operations. This usually boils down to how to produce more with less (or the same with less).

To achieve this, there is the typical formula that any company or area manager will have to revisit. I'm talking here about the combination of human resources, capital and technology.

To name a few generic options... there are many services that allow you to outsource certain tasks at a lower cost. There will also be people in your teams who are able to absorb more work. There is technology that simplifies operational management and makes it cheaper. And there are options for using capital that offer better returns in the short term.

Risks of adjustments

What is often put on the other side of the scale when estimating these types of decisions is the impact it has on the final product or service. I refer to that perceived risk that - by modifying something in the existing formula - this could affect the quality of the product or service, leading to potential problems with customers or brand reputation, which in turn anticipates a spiral of negative consequences.

Of course, when the impact on what turns out to be the “core” of the business is doubtful, here the risk analysis must be detailed.

This first invites us to incorporate listening mechanisms with customers and measurement tools that they give us visibility on resource consumption and the costs generated in the different operations of the business.

What can we do?

There are many internal peripheral operations that don't give your brand extra value in the market, and that they can clearly be optimized to gain productivity and/or reduce costs without major risks.

As someone who has led Marketing and Sales teams, I have always looked for ways that technology and/or external services can simplify management of the area, so that the team's human resources can focus on everything that helped us to capture more revenue, customers, and retain them.

In areas of Accounting or Finance, especially where many of the company's real estate assets are managed, there is a lot of space to optimize processes, resize equipment and make use of what new technologies offer us.

I will now give you an example of how -after 1 year of data collected - the Polaroo service for managing basic supplies for companies reduces the time spent on manual and repetitive tasks at a much lower cost, and freeing up those resources for other tasks that bring more value to the company. (See table)