Downtime, So What?

Where were you when the last recession struck? Every recession and other setbacks do serve a few significant purposes: they leave behind reminders for corporates the necessity of building strong fundamentals. When the going is easy, everyone rides on overwhelming success. Industry veterans have known how a bullish market often induces organizations to pursue strategies and invest in resources that are hugely subprime. But come the downturn, managers stop looking in the eye. They have no answers to the non-linear posers they face on such unpleasant mornings. In several ways, such downturns are reality checks. They tell us how well prepared or unprepared we are; how organized have we been; how good our manufacturing practices really been all along; and, most importantly, how rugged our business model really is, in terms of building enduring competitive advantage and nurturing that. No one argues that such fundamentals will save the day. When organizations pursue activities that are centred on their competitive advantage, they are always at their prime. It will be the unworthy and sub-prime competition that is staring at an uncertain future.

So, simple deduction as it may seem, the focus again gets back to the core: the competitive advantage. Invest in and pursue initiatives, resources and strategies that can build a stronger and healthier business model. “Is this the time, but?” is the common knee-jerk reaction from most corner offices. Indeed, yes, if not any better - for several point blank reasons. First, the wounds are fresh. We know where it is hurting. We know where we need to improve right away. We will know that we need to provide immediate impetus to the weaknesses that we identify and are hell bent on rectifying.

Yes, corporate improvement areas can be addressed by business solutions that can make immediate and long-term impact. They can enable us think out of the box. While CXOs are convinced of the compelling wisdom of business solutions, the challenge of delivering better results the next quarter has always pushed aside the core priorities. Wisdom apart, this time, even the downturns dictate that we pursue these business solutions that show us in better light in darker times!

Business Solutions for Process Industries

Growing enterprises in the process industries are confident of riding the current storm. Taking cue from the metaphor, “Form is temporary, class is permanent”, progressive corporates believe that after the initial shakeout, they can expect to meet their growth objectives, if they can address the improvement areas in their core business areas. Here is a ring side-view of issues from the process industry perspective that can impact bottomlines significantly.

Pharmaceuticals:

Very few drug candidates, complex drug approvals, crowded competition in generic segment, stricter regulatory vigilance, and control over rising healthcare costs are the broader challenges most pharmaceutical companies are faced with. Recession, or no recession, the pharmaceutical industry is indeed forced to think long term, since it sinks in enormous fortunes on creating new drugs. While the present sways to market moods, the future needs to be well on track. In other words, how well and soon they will manage to bring out their new drugs will decide their destinies. And this is just the reason such pharma companies need an absolutely disciplined and classical approach towards attaining their strategic goals. Realising highest cost efficiencies and asset productivity has never been an accident in unconventional business scenarios such as this.

Business solutions in the pharma space are typically focused on the 3 core areas: research and development, manufacturing and supply chain logistics.

In research & development, analysts are faced with problems concerning new drug discovery, intense competition in generics and cGLP/cGCP compliance. Business solutions in manufacturing primarily involve achieving higher cost efficiency and productivity. Supply chain logistics can pose challenges in better demand management and improving market intelligence.

Chemicals:

Capital intensive as they are, chemical companies often are susceptible to sustained market pressures like in the present times. With environmental pressures at an all time high, and cost pressures always challenging the brave, the obvious panacea for chemical companies is achieving profitability in the highly cost intensive projects through optimum utilization of manufacturing assets.

Business solutions for a typical agro-chemical company can address challenges such as addressing diverse stakeholders’ interests and managing sales across widely spread market geographies. While for a specialty chemical company, whose nature of business involves small volumes, customer understanding, knowledge and intellectual property are critical success factors. And organizations in the paints and dyes business are faced with typical problems: a complex mix of logistic and technological. Meeting customer’s emotional needs most precisely and at the right price points – herein lies their success mantra.

Food & Beverages:

“Food industry is one that is least affected by recession”, as Lee Iococca famously said over 2 decades ago. Indeed always true. Albeit now, the scale is different and the risks in getting the strategy wrong, are higher. Minimizing unsold stock, faster sale-to-cash cycle and managing the cost of distribution without adding to the price… In fact, with inflationary pressures, the cost to the company is constantly on the rise. But customer’s acceptance at higher price points is always a risk during recessionary times. Business solutions can address a host of such challenges in these trying times.

Consumer Products:

Clearly, one of the most vulnerable segments during any downturn, business challenges revolve around creating and managing innovations that deliver strongly on core value propositions. The ultimate analysis tells you that the product on the shelf needs to unlock customer’s cash in the wallet through its emotive appeal. It is the job of the business solution to highlight to the management on how they can plot this.

SpectraSoft’s Business Solutions through Domain Expertise

No effective business solution can ever be built without deep domain expertise and a perspective gained through proven record. If it is process industry, trust SpectraSoft to take you through. SpectraSoft understands the myriad challenges – strategic as well as tactical, enterprise-level as well as functional, to create and deliver business solutions, that give your business the competitive advantage. SpectraSoft has the tested ability to look deeper into the existing business processes, identify areas of improvement and address them with actionable strategies.

Talking of transformation, there has never been a better time to seek one.