BizTimes Milwaukee asked the top executives of the 2009 Future 50 companies to share their best practices for surviving and thriving in The Great Recession. Here are their responses.
- Abri Health Plan Inc "The two key strategies Abri has used to survive and thrive during this difficult economic recession have been technology improvements and member outreach. The first of these strategies, technology, started with our new company website. We followed that technological leap with the decision to switch to electronic claims and upgrade our equipment. We contracted with a claims clearinghouse to accept electronic health care claims and implemented a new system that increased our response time and workflow efficiencies. The upgraded scanners, printers, and 24- inch monitors added to the improved workflow and overall response time. Our second strategy was to increase our member outreach and communications staff to focus on client retention."
- Affinity, Inc. "Increase sales force and markets served. Manage operational expenses tightly."
- Alpha Source Inc. "Use of technology, best practices, ISO 13485:2003 certification, expanding exports, partnerships with medical device manufacturers, employee training."
- BC ADHESIVES "Being optimistic and proactively searching for new business."
- Boyle Fredrickson S.C. "In the current challenging economic climate, we are focusing on continuing to provide our clients with exceptional legal services to maximize the competitive price advantages we have over other firms to maintain and grow our client base."
- Carl Krueger Construction Inc. "We continue to educate employees on the latest restoration practices. Customer pre-screening to make sure properties aren’t in foreclosure. Continue to build relationships with insurance companies."
- Central Office Systems "A few weeks ago I stopped in to see a friend who runs a service business that is heavily dependent on the construction and manufacturing industries for their revenues. We talked about what leadership decisions were required to weather an economic downturn. The conversation has weighed heavily on my mind as I communicated with other business owners in my industry during the course of my regular daily business. What does it take to survive and prosper in an economic downturn? In every one of my conversations, the same answers keep occurring. Be quick and go huge: As a business leader you are responsible for the long term viability of the business. It is human nature to underestimate the severity of a crisis. Make your cuts now and make them strong. Reduce the pay of your non-productive staffers or terminate them now. You know who they are. Reduce costs until your staff thinks you are the second coming of Ebenezer Scrooge. They’ll get the wrong message if you don’t. Get right to your core business: You know what your company does well. Do that. Examine exactly what it is that makes you profitable. Continually preach your differentiators to your staff and your customers. Focus on your competencies, repeatedly remind everyone what you do best, and do only what brings profitable revenue in to your business. If you are a service business, now is the time to rededicate your organization to that goal. Recognize your industry trends: Get in front of the trends that can help your business grow, and run away from the negative trends. Understand how the trends affect your core business. It’s easy for me to say this. It’s harder for you to actually do. Manage your cash: Make sure your customers pay you. Let them string out their other, more timid suppliers. Pay your bills on time and take the cash discounts. Renegotiate with your suppliers, since you are such a good payer. Are you measuring your cash deposits daily? Forget profitability and focus on your cash flow. Profitability without cash equals Enron. Communicate like a wild man: Tell your staff and your customers exactly what you are doing. Tell them again. Remind them why you are doing things. Cutbacks do not scare your strong staffers, but uncertainty does. Circle the wagons, look for opportunities to reduce costs and improve revenues at every turn and continually state you objectives. Celebrate every cost reduction and especially celebrate and encourage new revenue production. Ask yourself, what would I do if the worst case scenario for my business occurred today? Once you have answered that question, ask yourself what would happen if I did this right now? In many cases, acting in worst case scenario mode is the right thing to do now, to actually avoid a worst case scenario. I am not a pessimist, but a realistic optimist. There are tremendous opportunities ahead for the smart adaptable organizations. The long-term outlook for our economy and our country is bright. Optimism has always been the best long-term bet here in the United States. The pessimists have consistently been on the wrong side of the bet. It’s up to you to make sure that your organization is here to reap the long term benefits that will surely exist in a few years."
- Commerce State Bank "Commerce State Bank built a new permanent facility in 2008 and took occupancy in January, 2009. This 33,000 square foot building located at Highway 45 and Paradise Drive will accommodate our rapid growth and house all employees. The building’s design communicates permanency and stability, and is a key element of the bank’s marketing strategy with tremendous visibility and stunning architecture. It sits high on a hill with a ‘curved back’ and a mid section that stands taller than the rest of the structure. It makes extensive use of glass and metal panels. Grand opening will be March 19, 2009. In 2008 we migrated to the Metavante technology platform, added new employees, including a deposit specialist, and increased our marketing investment. In May, 2009 we are opening a second location in Cedarburg. This full service branch will open a new geographic market presence for us. We are already receiving tremendous response and gaining several new clients based on the announcement of us locating there. We believe in being very accessible to clients. Whenever possible, we go to the client. However, our location offers a friendly, welcoming environment – people feel very comfortable, as though they are at their favorite nice restaurant, or private club without ‘pretentiousness’ or ‘exclusivity’. We couple this attitude with state of the art technologies (we are converted to a leading core provider of bank technology in fall, 2008), such as remote deposit capture, and online mortgage applications and personal service (yes we have telephone banking, call us we answer the phone). Commerce State Bank is achieving success by staying focused in its market area and on its areas of expertise. We understand the importance of being responsive to clients. This is the hallmark of our bank. Clients need, and want, quick responses to their requests. Our ability to provide quick responses gives us a significant competitive advantage."
- Crosstowne Machining "While we have focused on reducing any unnecessary costs, we have increased our spending on marketing as it is critical to our future growth success. As a result, we have picked up two new customers in the last three weeks. So while the recession has impacted our company, the long-term future looks very good."
- Everything2go.com LLC "1) Negotiate with vendors for best pricing; 2) Leverage the growing Internet channel ; 3) Continue to offer superior service to our customers; 4) Open new websites in emerging markets, school and federal government."
- Executive Benefits Network "We are working harder to reach out to more prospects. We are expanding into three new market places outside of Wisconsin."
- Fabricated Metal Products Company, Inc. "Expanding sales opportunities with current and new customers and new processing methods."
- Fi-Med Management, Inc. "Fi-Med continues to add and refine services, to find new channels for improving clients’ bottom line and to participate in industry studies and programs that complement its mission and improve the business environment for clinicians. From the beginning, Fi-Med’s model was based on attracting the best talent and expertise in the marketplace, and backing them with the best technology available to the health care industry."
- First Edge Solutions Inc. "Transparency – high level of communication – customers, employees, bank, etc. No excuses, sell more and look for acquisitions."
- Franklin Energy Services, LLC "The recession is not negatively impacting our business and revenue. We are in the business of implementing energy efficiency programs for utilities and government agencies, which has been growing significantly over the past four years and is expected to continue to grow in the foreseeable future."
- Fullhouse "Working with clients to present ideas that allow them to do more with less."
- Heritage Printing "Heritage is focused on LEAN to reduce costs internally while investing in new technologies that help our customers produce and distribute their marketing collateral more efficiently."
- InfoCor "Think ‘resource to results.’ Brainstorm on utilizing our existing resources to get better results. Measure performance. Train our staff. -Keep our eye on the ball. Stick to our business plan and adjust when necessary."
- InPro Corporation "At InPro Corp., 2008 was our best year ever, despite the economy. How were we able to achieve this while other company’s nation wide were struggling? The answer is quite simple, and our strategy to survive and thrive during the recession has only one component. That component is ‘change.’ At InPro Corp., we plan for change. It is our culture. As a result, we never have to react to change. The problem with many companies is that they try to operate under a business plan based on reaction, and therefore they are forced to cut and slash indiscriminately when their business model parameters change. At InPro Corp. we develop an annual mission statement which details how we will change our company in the new year. Our annual mission statement is developed after we SWOT our company, which gives us information as to the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats that we feel we will face during the next 12 months. Once completed, our annual mission statement will contain the critical goals and the action plans required to address our SWOT for the upcoming new year. Our president then holds company-wide meetings to explain the mission for the new year, and invites all employees to join one or more of the action plan committees. At the end of the old year, we will do this all over again for the upcoming new year. Every 12 months, we develop a new mission for keeping our company growing in the face of worldwide changes in market conditions. As a cultural side benefit of our annual plan for change (our annual mission statement), InPro employees are not sitting around in a static business environment working on their personal exit strategies as business is falling apart around them. Instead, we are engaged in the opportunities that are presented when change is planned for."
- Interra Health, Inc. "Strategies include: Repackaging of products to allow clients to purchase products at lower costs. Expand to new markets. Partner with larger organizations."
- Jefferson Electric Inc "Relocation of higher cost production to lower cost production sites Aggressive sales and marketing of products to current and new customers to expand market share Introduction of complimentary products that represent new markets for Jefferson."
- KS Energy Services, Inc. "We have already prepared for this downturn beginning in 2008 by securing and extending a number of long term contracts. In addition, we have added to our customer base in anticipation of this downturn providing us with more opportunities to gain work and have expanded our geographic region to other states. . . Regretfully we will look to cut back on our capital expenditures in 2009 and possibly 2010 but project awards could change this plan.".
- LandWorks, Inc. "Focused marketing with pinpoint targets, unprecedented level of customer service, fast response times to customers needs, tighter spending controls."
- MARS IT Corp. "Our basic operating strategies have turned out to be highly viable during recession. We have always operated very lean, relying more on advanced technology and brain power for efficiencies than the costly set ups."
- MasterLink Corporation "During these tight economic times MasterLink has remained focused on key service deliverables for which our clients are continuing to address and require support. We are maintaining operations that control and contain internal costs: we are leveraging key business partnerships to extend our services to customers while retaining a cost competitive environment, and we are utilizing technology to streamline operations while reducing overhead."
- Metal-Era Inc. "Metal-Era has taken the approach of not allowing this recession change our overall goal. The following are some of the things that have allowed us to be positioned well in the roofing industry. Over the last five years, Metal-Era has been able to expand into brand new markets that has helped us diversify and create more opportunities. Since 1980 Metal-Era has been the national leader in low-slope roof edge systems. We have a great reputation for not only our products but our customer service. Three years ago, Metal-Era introduced a brand new product line called Airflow Solutions to the roofing industry. Our Airflow Solutions consist of eave and ridge ventilation products that are designed to take into account the unique characteristics of commercial buildings. Airflow Solutions is different than any other roof ventilation product on the market and because of its design and performance Metal-Era has been able to increase sales 100 percent every year. In order to capture the more economical market, Metal-Era created another product line called Edge Systems One. This product line is competitively priced, tested to the international building code and is able to ship next day. Edge Systems One was designed as a low cost alternative to Metal-Era’s other higher priced, warranted roof edge systems. In 2004 with assistance from Wisconsin Manufacturing Extension Partnership, Metal-Era conducted a value stream mapping of our production process to increase work flow and reduce bottlenecks. This has allowed us to reduce our lead times on our major product lines by 40 percent. Metal-Era has also improved on recommendations from our employees. In the year 2000, Metal-Era put a program in place that rewards employees for ideas that save the company money. Ideas such as: a redesign of tooling or a new method for completing a task has saved the company an estimated $50,000 in wages. Metal-Era’s R&D team meets monthly and has been very active in coming up with new and innovative products. We are proud of the fact that we have been averaging two patents a year. The R&D team is also involved in recommending new equipment and technology. Metal-Era has invested over $1.5 million for new equipment based off the team’s recommendations. An example of this is the two robotic cells that were assembled in 2008 to replace several repetitive tasks. This has allowed us to increase efficiency and accuracy while shifting employees to other more demanding areas. We expect a return on this investment in two years. Metal-Era has done a great job at reducing our operating costs. With a new 28,000 square foot expansion that will be complete in May of this year, Metal-Era has chosen to install skylights that will give us enough day lighting that we will not have to turn on our inside lights until the sun goes down. We have also decreased our paper usage with our implementation of a program called Paperwise. This software allows us to save orders, estimates, job information and anything else that would get filed. Normally in a year we would fill up 10 filing cabinets, in 2009 we are expecting to fill up one. We have also looked into the paper we are using on a day to day basis. We have made a conscious effort to ensure that our print literature and copy paper is from a recycled source and when possible part of the Sustainable Forestry initiative program. These are just some of the major items we have focused on to help get through this recession."
- Milwaukee Bearing & Machining, Inc. "Pull back outsourcing, reduce overtime, hiring freeze, frugal with all expenses."
- New Resources Consulting "New Resources has a multi-pronged approach. 1) stay very close to existing customers and working with them as they face their economic challenges, 2) developing new service offerings designed to expand our revenue stream 3) focusing on the long-term objectives."
- Learning Exchange "Become a leader in the urban education market. Become a preferred supplier to our targeted customers; recruit, train and develop the right people in organization; build systemic reliability."
- Red Anvil, LLC "Red Anvil combines the expertise and services to make easier for any size company to receive robust IT, hosting and network services. Bringing these disciplines together under one contract, and providing a client portal that offers service transparency, allows our clients to simultaneously pay less and operate more efficiently. These are both highly-desired outcomes in the current market."
- Retail Maintenance Service Inc. "The recession has provided us additional opportunities as many facility management professionals are more focused on maintaining existing locations to protect their investments. Our products and services help our clients manage budgets, reduce expenses and increase efficiencies. This helps to improve the overall bottom line of our clients, which is important in these challenging economic times."
- S3 International, LLC "Maintain and continuously improve customer service and diversify value added services."
- Schroeder Solutions "We are focusing on marketing to ‘recession-proof’ companies (E&I/Energy, Healthcare, GSA). And we have introduced a new facilities maintenance program to give companies the option to give their office a facelift with out spending a lot of money on new furniture."
- Security Personnel, Inc. "To thrive in a recession be on the look out for new opportunities. Recently Security Personnel was able to acquire a loss prevention division. The acquisition of this business enables SPI to offer an alternative method of security to our clients. We were also fortunate to retain a key employee who was a police officer with an extensive loss prevention background. Retail clients are currently seeking additional security services in the form of loss prevention, so the creation of a loss prevention division allows us to remain competitive in the market and be responsive to client’s needs. Listening to clients is imperative during a recessionary period. Value added service is an oft mentioned term, but it is something that sets a company apart. A major client recently requested that we provide security/emergency training for their employees. We work with a national security consultant and were able to arrange for him to present the seminar. This not only impressed the client, but the costs involved in the presentation were absorbed by SPI. The win/win for SPI is that we now have a security seminar that we can make available to other clients. There are three final and crucial elements that I see to surviving the current trend. We realize that it is imperative to focus on selling and promoting SPI. As well as closely monitoring all expenditures. Lastly, on a weekly basis we review our accounts receivables paying close attention to clients in troubled industries or changes in frequency of payments, so that we are able to maintain a solid cash flow."
- Solaris "Being in the medical industry, we have been somewhat protected from the broader economy. We believe, however, that we are taking a sizable percentage of sales from our competitors."
- Stamm Technologies, Inc. "Stamm Technologies is analyzing and improving the value that we provide in our service to our clients so that we continue to maintain and build deep relationships with them. Additionally, we have increased our sales force and our sales efforts in order to grow our client base during this recession. We are also reviewing multiple potential acquisitions to increase our size and services. Stamm Technologies is reviewing and improving our service model so we can continue to better our client experience through increased efficiency and quality.
- Symmetry Corp. "Weekly review of AIR alternative financing expense cutting measures."
- The Penebaker Enterprises, LLC "We are carefully monitoring our employment levels in order to avoid overextending ourselves and our credit lines. We have also structured our bank financing by including an SBA stimulus loan for equipment and working capital. Additionally, we are improving on the existing relationships with other general contractors by remaining in constant contact with them regarding material price fluctuations so as to implement plans of attack to avoid costly increases by buying in bulk and/or buying earlier in the process. We have also implemented various cost control measures that provides the analysis we need to make better decisions to either make capital purchases or to delay making the purchase. We have made the conscious decision to become more conservative in our spending methods in efforts to retain more cash on hand and are forcing ourselves to use our existing machines and equipment in a more efficient manner."
- The Waterstone Group Employment Administration Services LLC "1. Retention – Providing higher levels of service and care to our existing customers. 2. Grow – Aggressively pursuing new business opportunities, additional HR revenue generators and hiring additional sales professionals."
- Thin Air Software LLC "Going into this year we developed several business plans so we could adjust depending on how the year played out."
- TLX Technologies "Revised website, more technology focused presentations, implement lean manufacturing."
- Triad Construction Inc. "We hired a marketing company late last year to help us develop a marketing plan. We also hired a part time marketing coordinator to assist us in our marketing efforts. We just completed a strategic planning session for the company which defined our goals for the next three years."
- Trissential "We are doing constant improvement in the areas of people, process and technology. This is the same business we do for our clients, so our revenue will continue to grow in this recession."
- UIhlein Electric Company, Inc. "Creating New non-traditional opportunities. Focus on Energy Waste Reduction and Building Technology. Never sit still and wait. Drive for success."
- Velcheck & Finger Roof Consulting & Service "We are a quick response high quality service company and we also provide a unique project management service. We specialize in extending the life of your roof not replacement, during a recession no one wants to spend the money on replacement, but they still need a watertight roof system, that’s our expertise."
- Weather Tight Corp. "We experienced a record year in 2008, with 50-percent growth over the previous year. We opened our first showroom in West Allis, a 25,000-square-foot building and are adding a second satellite location in Brookfield this spring. We have reinvested time and energy into advancing the skill levels of our lead generators, and our conversion rates on their leads have skyrocketed. Our sales management team meets with the owners and marketing director twice a week to revise sales forecasts and develop new methods for training. We are adding on new product lines – insulation and room additions – and have beefed up smaller divisions like our entry door division. Most importantly, we have embraced a spirit of teamwork and cooperation, to encourage different departments to put aside territorial claims and come together for the good of the company. Employees are happier and more productive, and this has led to our dramatic increase in performance."
- Wireless Logic Inc. "In 2009 we plan to continue to have steady growth in all key wireless and wireline metrics; these include several supporting categories such as accessories, features and ancillary products. We are budgeting for a 25-percent increase in overall revenue, however due to the economic downturn and sharply reduced expectations from Wall Street, we may need to re-evaluate the target. Conservatively we will grow at 15 percent, and are very confident even in the current economy will meet our target of 25 percent. This growth will come in multiple ways, one of which through acquisition of existing locations, both strategically and opportunistic. Our new started Business Sales Group (BSG) will be a key part of achieving our targets; they are exclusively focused on small business and have already shown great potential. Another way we plan to grow is by developing a new more effective approach to hiring, training and rightsizing of staff based on customer and market demands. We have the knowledge from real time data to let us know when and where we need people. We also are asking for commitment from our staff to personally develop, to set goals for the year and to make these commitments public, allowing their peers to help in meeting these results. We are building a team of professional that will be second to none…experts. Our 2009 plans include staffing and training, change role of assistant store managers, taking over certain duties from store managers; refocus store managers roles to further develop sales staff to expert level; ongoing comprehensive training program that will turn our salespeople into experts; hire for intelligence and attitude, train for skill; use personality and skills testing for all new hires; introduce AT&T skills challenges with rewards for top performers; initiate a wellness program, health and fitness to help energy levels and stimulate brain growth; intelligence and attitude is our goal business sales group; new dedicated small business division; focused on gross ads and business data products; dedicated to cold calling and business networking; remodel the Pewaukee location as planned in 2008 to increase opportunities by and estimated 20 percent; seek best locations for expansion and possible relocation as real estate opportunities come forth; invest in larger LCD monitors for all locations to make Advance TV/U-verse more visible; Install ShopperTrak surveillance to monitor employee down time effectiveness and reduce shrink as well as customer traffic patterns; new locations targeted for Sheboygan and lower east side of Milwaukee; Wireless Logic e-commerce; launch a new best-in-class web site to support our retail locations as well as the BSG (business sales group) target launch."
- Wixon Inc. "1) Innovation – Identifying new products and marketing them to customers to garner new business and differentiate vs. competition. 2) Pricing – Staying ahead of commodity pricing changes. 3) Current Customer Growth – Focus on building strong partnerships with current customers vs. looking for new customers. 4) Internal Process Improvement – Looking for cost-saving improvements internally."
- WFA Staffing Group "No Layoff’s. We need to keep our experienced sales people and recruiters. We have strategically cut certain expense categories."
- Zeon Solutions Inc. "Zeon continues to grow by maintaining a close relationship with our existing customers so we can truly understand their business needs and consistently deliver a strong and quantifiable return on investment. We also strive to expand into new market segments that can benefit from our product and service offerings, especially in these hard economical times. We strategize and make recommendations on how to apply technology intelligently in order to optimize online quoting, ordering, and production processes. Another major source of our success has been the effective management of variable and fixed costs, as well as our strategy to build our team expertise by hiring talented professionals as they re-enter the workforce."
