Looking Ahead Into 2010: Who Will Be Successful

By Andrew Ballenthin October 20, 2009 President, Sol Solutions Biography

Connect.Follow.Network.

yourBusinessChannel.com and their talented team started a great project: compiling insights from international experts on "who will be successful in 2010?" I was asked to contribute my thoughts to the videocast they put together. What I'm more interested in is who do you think will be successful in business in 2010? Why? Leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

What follows are 3 excerpts from a total of six commentaries on yBC's videocast and PDF. Both of these are available further down the page.

Noel Quinn, UK Head of Commercial Banking HSBC
"History tells us more businesses will fail in recovery than they do in a downturn.

Entrepreneurs are looking for more than money; their new business models depend on access to networks, knowledge and people. They have found flexible ways of working and will not return to more rigid, arguably more expensive, forms of business in the future. They are using technology and advisers to build social, network and human capital as well as finance."
Source: HSBC Business Recovery Report Nov 2009


Thomas Power, Founder of Ecademy.com
"The last decade has been one of massive change. The traditional way of doing business no longer works. Those entrepreneurs who take and Open Random and Supportive (ORS) approach will win. In 2010 ORS entrepreneurs will make more connections, move faster, and achieve more wins."


Mark Mason, CEO Mubaloo
Those who have identified a growth market and set up a business within that market. We set up Mubaloo after correctly predicting that business mobile media would be a significant growth market over the coming years. According to a recent MEF poll, mobile media revenues are due to grow 33% in the next year, with 17% of that attributed to apps.


To download the PDF of all six expert's
commentaries go to SlideShare.

Comments

[Norm Nopper]

I like Noel Quinn's counter intuitive statement:

"History tells us more businesses will fail in recovery than they do in a downturn."

During downturns, businesses denude themselves of their talent through layoffs and by cutting back on training and development. Because they are focus solely on the financials, especially cashflow, they neglect the employees who survive the layoffs. And the moment good time return, employees who did survive are apt to "bolt for the door" to find better opportunities.

During the downturn, companies lose customers because of economic reasons - i.e., through no fault of their own.

During the recovery, companies don't have the people resources to meet customers' needs and expectations. They lose customers because they can't deliver, and they suffer loss of reputation.

After an economic downturn, customers come back. After a poor customer experience, they don't.

The companies the will be well positioned to take full advantage of the recovery are those that:
1) kept an eye on their financials to weather the downturn.
2) kept an eye on their talent to retain and develop the people they will need to meet demand once the customer returns.

And remember the basic laws of business:
Business is a HUMAN activity, because,
1) If you don't have a customer, you don't have a business.
2) If you don't have talented people, you can't provide a quality product/service at a profit.