Smart GrowthA Surging Small Business

When the economy tanked last year, it did so with such force that it affected every single American. Hopefully, things have evened out, but full recovery is still a bit elusive and it could easily be a long way off.

Now that things have settled somewhat, it's time to examine where we stood in the fall of last year versus where we stand now. Many of us are fortunate to have survived, but there was a lot that went into keeping afloat. In these uncertain economic times, I don't know anyone in business who hasn't had to rethink how they do business.

One upside for our company, ACS Solutions, was that we were pushed to think more creatively about our strategic plans and it paid off. We're fortunately in great shape.

As a TIA Board Member and Chair of its Small Business Committee, I felt it was important that we introduce a new feature in TIA's ICT2020 called "Smart Growth." In each issue, we'll profile a successful TIA member company that is beating the odds and prospering despite the weak economy. We'll ask the heads of small businesses – which make up 80 percent of our membership – to tell their stories and share their thoughts and ideas about strategic planning and best practices in a Q&A format with ICT2020 editors.

I've volunteered to get things started in this issue. If you'd like to participate in a future issue, please contact me at bglutting@acssolutions.com or ICT2020 editor Mike Snyder at msnyder@tiaonline.org. My interview with Mike appears below.

Thank you. -Bryan Glutting

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Q: How dramatically has the economy affected the way you do business at ACS Solutions?

A: Well, it did catch us off guard. The first thing that has a tendency to happen when there's a big change like this, it creates a little bit of pure panic. You ask yourself, "What are you gonna do?"

The important thing was that we were deep enough into relationships with our customers and the vendors to do a sanity check. We could ask them, "How bad is it really for you?"

The question is whether or not it was reality or perceived reality. It definitely affected everyone, and everyone was saying the same thing.

But people just don't stop buying because it's a bad economy. AT&T still has to deploy U-Verse. Everyone gets slowed down because of labor costs, but they still have to deploy equipment, because they have competition.

So we decided that we weren't going to accept the gloom and doom scenarios. We asked, "How do we discriminate ourselves from everyone else who feels this way?" Sales and senior staff asked "how do we present ourselves?" We had to stay positive and stay proactive. That line from Apollo 13 – "failure is not an option" – that was our mantra. We really believed in it.

We found out that simply stepping up our activity with our customers helped. Our marketing folks validated that our customers still needed to buy.

Q: How did you change the way you ran your business?
 

A: I gave my senior staff and my sales people more authority to make decisions on the fly. Empowering them and getting the entire organization engaged, focused and moving forward and getting creative on the spot, getting creative in coming up with programs for our customers to help them save. We can save them money, not because we're undercutting our competitors, but because we can take an entire job as one vendor, compared to four or five separate vendors they'd used in the past for the same job. It provides a cost savings, improves accountability.

And at the end of the day we were better off than when we started. We took more market share.

Q: What else proved helpful in your ability to keep ACS Solutions in the black?

A: Fiscal responsibility was probably the biggest reason we could do what we did. Because we kept spending low when times were good, we weren't affected by the credit crunch.

Some competitors were very reactive, cutting costs, cutting sales people, but because of that, there was a lack of performance. They might be able to beat the cost of my bid, but then they couldn't buy the materials because their credit was frozen. Frankly, we were able to get a better share of the market because the market and the competition were shrinking. We could get a clearer view and our sales people were able to go out there and make a difference.

We approached one customer we hadn't seen in a while. He tells me that he hasn't seen any of my competitors in over a year. We probably have about 85 percent of his business now just because we showed up and showed we cared.

But we're not the only success story. You have to dig down in the press, but you'll find some companies are thriving.

Q: What advice would you offer to other small businesses regarding best practices?

A: As far as best practices go, the first one would be staying balanced and staying positive. To get there, you need to involve everyone in your organization.

Instead of the president, CEO, board and the senior managers making all of the decisions, ask your people: "What's the best way to get through this?" Not how to get out of it, but the best way to get through it. By asking people you may not normally ask for their input, you'll find more efficient ways to do things.

In our case it was true not just of manufacturing, but of every part of our organization – sales, admin, marketing. We empowered everyone. With the opportunity to provide input and make decisions, they get to take ownership and get energized. Getting down to the front lines to help deal with this situation or any situation is probably the best practice, and we've proven that it works.

I talked to one woman about six months ago who told me she actually felt good about coming to work because of the changes we had made. She said that during the previous six or seven years, it had just been a job to her and now she felt ownership, like she was really contributing.

Q: How has your operational shift affected your long-term strategic plans?
 

A: Our new way of looking at things allows people to be creative and think outside the box. What we did opens up a level of creativity from the front lines, if you will, about where else can we be as effective. The bottom line is that we're now looking at expanding into two or three other markets.

Q: Looking forward, as the economic conditions ease, hopefully, would you revert back to the previous way of running your business?

A: Absolutely not. Because of creative thinking, we've been able to quadruple our capacity, but hire only 15 percent more staff. We've actually created a brand new company out of these hard times. I would never go back to the old company because we'd probably be kicked to the curb like a lot of other companies. If we hadn't changed we might not still be open today.

Q: What is your biggest takeaway as a CEO?
 

A: I think one of the biggest things I've learned is, as a CEO, it is a very lonely job. What you need to remember is, you're not alone. If you can seek out other people to help you with your situation, you'll end up being surprised at the solutions the people that report to you and the people that report to them can come up with.

Instead of trying to fix the problem and Band-Aid it, we looked out over time, space and cause, and determined that there were small things we could do. The small things you can control we call leverage points. They may not be obvious at first, although they could be right in front of you. But the key is to find the leverage points in your organization and things will fall more into alignment, producing less reactive or overreactive behavior.

One small thing can create a dynamic change in your organization. But you have to dig deep to find it. We found that the biggest opportunities for change are identified by the people you have closest to the situation. Leverage points are simply a 50,000-foot look at a small change at sea level that affects the entire company through a domino effect if you will.

You don't need to spend more money on consultants. If you approach it the right way and lift your people up, you get the input you need internally. Then keep the details open. As a CEO, I've learned you should be detailing – not dictating, but detailing. How you approach things will make a lot more sense and you'll get a lot more input. People want to be part of something bigger than themselves.