Survival business strategies: the legal and not so legal

Business is tough as the United States—and the world—trudge through this recession. As profits slip, many company owners and execs are revamping their business strategies to make it through.

One Redlands, Calif., glass shop repairman chose a less-than-legal strategy to attract new customers. The Sun reported last week that Redlands police arrested Timothy Klenke for “launching spark plugs with a slingshot at [car] windows and then planning to solicit his victims for the repairs,” according to the article.

Klenke’s money-making strategy is a bit more rudimentary than Bernard Madoff’s $50 billion scheme, certainly, but is still every bit as illegal.

So, what are some companies doing legally to survive?

Home Depot made a sharp change in business plans, ending its trajectory of dramatic growth by laying off 7,000 employees and closing its 34-store subsidiary Expo Design Centers. Home Depot officials say they are retrenching, returning to business basics by focusing on in-store sales improvements.

IBM plans to get through the recession by targeting new customers in less-developed industries, officials announced Feb. 9. The manufacturing and utilities sector, for example, are less electronically savvy than other industries, such as banking, officials say.

GM’s strategy seems to be getting even more bailout money from the government. (Anyone know how I can get in on some of these bailout funds? I wouldn’t need anywhere near GM’s $13.4 billion—maybe just half that.)

Business Lexington, Kentucky, ran a column Feb. 5 offering some alternatives to closures and downsizing, including reduced work schedules and salary cuts. Dell and FedEx have both employed such techniques, according to the column.

What are you doing to help your company survive? Is your strategy working? Post a comment and let us know.

—Katy Devlin, commercial glass & metals editor, retail glass co-editor, Glass Magazine