Warren Buffet — American Investor, Billionaire, and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway — called loans the “Financial Weapons of Mass Destruction”.

A Britannica Entry agrees that mass destruction is exactly what it was during 2008. A whopping $900 billion in credit was disbursed from as early as 2001 which rose up to $62 trillion by the time 2008 turned in.

Sooner or later, this overwhelming mountain of debt had to collapse with American homes, banks, corporations, and financial institutions bearing the brunt of the pain.

The 2008 crisis didn’t just affect the United States. It sent out ripples of waves that hit the entire world. Most countries suffered (at least marginally) the overarching impact of the crisis. As If Europe didn’t have problems of its own, the crisis only added to it.

Ever since the ripples of the crisis hit the European shores, everything changed for businesses (and individuals too, but we aren’t getting there for this post). The average Danish hourly prices plunged about 25%

Consulting companies, vendors, and partners charged these low amounts to win more business, to make themselves, more competitive, and hoping that it’d never be this way forever. Everyone thought that things will be back to normal.

That never happened.

Businesses are screaming at the top of their lungs for lower prices but consultants don’t want to lower the prices at the same time. Businesses suffered; vendor companies suffered.

The pain of the negative growth spiral spawned and the top line was forever under the pressure to grow and deliver.

Today, the situation hasn’t changed much and most businesses still struggle to meet sales forecasts. A competitive market, highly priced staff or vendors, unrelenting pressure to deliver, and the fact that it’s getting harder to convince customers – all of this adds up.

Companies are getting into this negative growth spiral, rarely meeting sales goals, and if they do win projects, these have higher costs than the relative value of the projects themselves.

Meanwhile, the markets are moving. The opportunity still exists. Globally, the venues for growth are still inviting.

Businesses today have a need to look far beyond the ways they are set in.

• Look for a global workforce than just looking for local talent (turns out to be remarkably cheaper and better)
• Create a mix-pricing strategy with a global delivery system
• Turn around the usually expensive customer support system into a low-cost, high-performance setup.
• Innovate and offer new products and services to clients
• Create opportunities using upsell techniques (such as 24 x 7 support, for instance). 

To survive in a competitive landscape – as it is today – you’d need more than just products, people, and processes.

You’d need a global outlook, a collaborative approach to work, and a great strategy to support growth and profitability.

Are you at it yet?