South African business leaders, who have developed a reputation of boldness, are becoming more cautious than their international counterparts.
The slowing global economy has forced business leaders around the world to become more cautious particularly before making capital investments. It has become common business practice for companies to require service providers to prove that their product will deliver the promised return on investment in their unique business environment before they will part with their money.
However, local business leaders are proving even more cautious than their global counterparts. We operate in a culture of deferment, where no one makes a buying decision just in case the investment doesn`t deliver the promised returns. Before parting with their money, companies` executives require proof of concept after proof of concept to ensure nothing is overlooked. All too often this results in inertia.
The fear of making the wrong decision could see South African companies lose ground against their international counterparts as well as highly competitive local firms. Don`t become paralysed by the thought of making a wrong decision. Look at those decisions that haven`t yielded the expected returns, define what when wrong and learn from them.
In many companies technology went wrong. Multimillion-rand investments didn`t deliver the expected ROI. The apparent inability of technology to deliver the promised returns was most often because of a lack of follow through. Value was never extracted. It was not because of an inherent weakness in the product.
The global recession, which has seen business volumes fall in many industries, is the ideal time for business leaders to focus on generating maximum value from historic investments.
Don`t be afraid to spend money on optimising an historic investment. The best time to generate advantage from major investments is when business is slow. By so doing so you will not only boost business performance in the short-term, but you will give your business the edge when the economy strengthens and business volumes grow. You will be much better prepared if you position yourself now.
Choose your partner carefully. Choose a company that can truly understand your business and can help you align your capital equipment with your business intent. A company that can work with you to maximise value while volumes are down. And, at minimal cost, can help you to generate additional value when volumes grow.
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