In Profit Magazine,
Stephan Cretier,
Founder of Garda World Security,
talks about how his company
survived the financial crisis
(when his company’s stock price
dropped from $17 to $0.57)
“Our two main clients
at that time were
Washington Mutual Bank
and Wachovia Bank,
which don’t exist today.
We were leveraged
to the maximum,
and we didn’t even know
if our bank clients were going
to survive.
So, many people questioned
whether WE would survive.
I remember
sitting with my management team.
I said, “Let’s stop focusing on
what’s impossible,
and start thinking
about what’s possible.”
So, we started thinking about
ways to get through the crisis,
whether it lasted 12, 18 or 24 months.
And we said “Let’s make sure
we’re the best security company
in the world when this crisis is over.”
So, we really started focusing on our systems,
on benchmarking the company,
on choosing the key markets,
on cleaning up the parts of the business
we wanted to be in
and getting rid of the rest.”
Of course,
if Garda had done all that
BEFORE the meltdown,
they would have been
in an even better position.
Don’t wait until your industry’s meltdown
(and it WILL come)
to take action.