In speaking to many of our clients and with several other businesses in the marketplace, there is a sense that the marketplace is experiencing some changes. Our clients were comparing themselves to their competitors and made a distinct statement that although their competition was experiencing some slowdown, their business was still operating at a solid level.
Some of the businesses we spoke with that are currently not clients of JKL Associates expressed concern about their business levels not being at the same higher levels they had been for some time. This has caused them to be more restrictive in making some investments in their businesses’ growth.
These events prompted JKL Associates to investigate further what might be causing these changes. Our unwavering commitment to our clients and future clients led us to identify possible influences that could assist them in positioning themselves to navigate the next business cycle. Our conversations with both clients and future business opportunities have led us to the following non-scientific thoughts.
As society emerged from the pandemic, businesses and employees’ pockets had a delayed cash flow. Businesses and people had experienced some added dollars over a number of months, which were being spent on additional items that might have been placed on hold while the pandemic sorted itself out. Those dollars are now being used to deal with rising costs on all fronts, thus leaving fewer dollars to spend on additional items. Leaders and people, in general, are now going into conservation mode as the future is still being sorted out, but the availability of cash in the pocket is less than it was.
Our research revealed a key factor: businesses and individuals who maintained an optimistic outlook and continued to invest strategically were weathering the current changes and outperforming those who were retreating from the uncertainty of the future. They were not spending recklessly but strategically positioning themselves for future growth opportunities while their competition was pulling back from the marketplace.
Our deeper investigation led us to a significant finding: businesses and individuals who could directly align with their Core Purpose, Core Values, and Core Principles were in a better position than those who were navigating the future with uncertainty. This alignment provided them with a sense of direction and confidence in their next steps.
For years, JKL Associates has used our Promise Culture model to assist our clients in aligning their business cultures with the best outcomes for their businesses and their people. This time and emotional investment is not easily implemented as it takes more than just coming up with nice words on paper. It requires leadership to be a bit vulnerable and expose their concerns about holding themselves accountable to the framework of the business. No longer could they pick and choose what applies to the business and their team and which applied to them personally. This sounds pretty simple but in practice it is far more difficult when accountability is mandatory to align everyone to a consistent culture. Once the culture is defined and aligned, the business then thrives and stops just existing.
It is not too late to put Promise Culture in place in your organization. Give JKL Associates a call at MI (313) 527-7945 or FL (407) 984-7246.
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Celebrating 30 years of Delivering on “Promises”
