A time of stagnation can be thought of as “a time of poor performance if you are a company or in sales, or a time when work is not going well.
If you have been in business for many years, there will always be such a time.
Many of our clients are in this stagnant period in the current Corona disaster and are struggling.
I would like to consider how we can escape from stagnation in such a situation.
1、 Take immediate steps for the next period
During my working years, I often encountered situations where the numbers stagnated.
Not reaching this month’s budget, struggling next month, and pushing too hard to make up for the second half of the year.
When we try to increase purchases, unsold inventory increases, foregone losses increase, and profits are squeezed.
Sales are declining, but the workload is increasing, and the company is extremely busy with immediate tasks.
Very little time is left to prepare for the next fiscal year, preparations for the next fiscal year become neglected, and a negative cycle begins.
To begin with, we need to consider why business performance has stagnated and sort out the causes of the stagnation by dividing it into internal and external factors.
Once the causes of stagnation are sorted out, immediate action should be taken to avoid making the same mistakes in the next fiscal year.
It is also important to correct the current bad situation,
However, it is absolutely necessary to avoid taking time to do so, which will have a negative impact on the next fiscal year.
The current bad situation is due to problems with past preparations and actions.
In extreme cases, the preparations and actions taken a year ago were not appropriate.
Even if we try to rebuild our current performance now, we will face considerable difficulties.
The important thing is to break the negative cycle so that the next fiscal year will not be adversely affected.
It is also important to analyze the causes of stagnation and take steps to improve the next fiscal year’s performance.
If the causes of the bad performance are known and left unchecked, it will never get better.
About 10 years after I created the casual pants section, which had never existed in the company before, I noticed that there were three categories within the section: “Mrs.”, “Young”, and “Career”.
Although they are small divisions, they each have different targets, and therefore have different ways of thinking and different things to do.
It was as if there were divisions within divisions, and competition and disputes arose among them, causing all kinds of losses that did not lead to business results, and I was troubled.
So, I decided to stop working with Mrs. and Career and focus solely on Young.
There were people in charge of both the Mrs. and the Career Division, so there was some opposition to my decision. The director advised me that sales would decrease if I stopped, and that I should gradually focus on young people, but this would not unify the minds of the section members.
Since the reason for the stagnation was that the members of the section were thinking and acting in different ways and not demonstrating the power of the organization, I thought that gradually narrowing down the focus would not be a solution.
I decided to focus on Young as soon as possible for the sake of my future, even if it meant a decrease in current sales.
The excellent career manager said, “I’ll quit if you narrow down the focus to Young,” but I remained firm in my decision.
The majority of people inside and outside the division were opposed to the decision, but I was prepared to say, “If this decision doesn’t work out, I will quit.
So I quickly put that policy into action. And the excellent carrier in charge really did quit.
I think the remaining section members sensed that the Chief was serious.
They understood my policy and worked hard. As a result, a year later, sales had increased rather than decreased.
Rather than worrying about the current stagnation, it is important to clarify the cause of the stagnation and make sure to take measures for the next term to prevent the stagnation from happening again.
2、 Opportunity for review
Salespeople who sell close to one billion yen by themselves when they are doing well are so confident that they will not listen to their section manager even if there is a problem with their basic operation. However, when sales are slow and they start to have doubts about their own sales ability, they become more honest.
When sales stagnate, it becomes easier to educate them.
I think this is a good opportunity to review the basics again, from planning, production, sales, and delivery.
We can re-evaluate ourselves as individuals and as a company again.
Are we gaining customers through trust in our quality?
Are you strengthening your planning and production management?
Are we developing new customers?
In the fashion industry, where we are in, change is a fact of life, and the success stories of the past may no longer apply.
What is invisible during good times may become visible during times of stagnation.
3、 Work with energy and a positive attitude
The thing to watch out for during stagnation is a loss of energy. Stagnation is always there, albeit in varying degrees.
Stagnation is what allows us to see the roadmaps to success.” With this in mind, we should work with hope and a positive attitude.
The honorary chairman of the company where I used to work says, “A person’s work is a series of failures and successes.
If we replace failure with stagnation, we get the following.
“People reform and succeed upon reflection of stagnation, but it will eventually self-contradict itself and end up in stagnation. Taking that stagnation as a clue, he succeeds again.
They will succeed again. It is a lie that one can succeed without stagnation.
When reforming stagnation, you know the cause of the stagnation and the means to success, so you must quickly reflect on the situation, treat the stagnation as stagnation, and decide on and implement a new course of action.
Then, you can cover up the stagnation. Then you can cover the stagnation. At that time, there will be no regrets or disappointments.
You will be alive and well enough to make the next move.
Put off the doom and gloom and blame and take the next step immediately and with courage and dignity.
And in a different Chairman’s memo, he also said.
Sweep away passive thinking, and luck will come your way again. If you work hard, you will be able to react quickly when unexpected good luck (which always has a certain probability) comes your way. If you are not enthusiastic, you will miss out on good luck, and you may be missing it right now. Luck is also software.
The most important value of all is that meeting and talking with that person gives you confidence and the energy to do what you want to do. From top to bottom, each and every employee must be persuasive, powerful, and attractive. The recession is getting more serious, and the game is close.
Next year is the critical point. If there are still people who are not serious, we have no choice but to ask those at the top and those at the bottom to leave the company and work only with those who are willing to do so.”
We will reflect on the situation, and when we have reached a conclusion, we will cheer up and move on to the next step as soon as possible. There is no time for anxiety or disappointment.