If there’s one idea that characterized 2009, it is “doing more with less.” If I had access to LexisNexis, I’d tell you just how many times it’s been used in print, but, alas, I don’t. Let’s go with it anyway.
The recession has forced managers and the C-suite to scrutinize budgets, choose which projects to embrace and which to scrap, and decide how many employees to sack. It has left a bad taste in many mouths.
“Doing more with less”: trimming the fat; getting back to basics; losing the bells and whistles; re-featuring; making tolerable tradeoffs; dialing down; innovating; repurposing.
Here are some variations of “doing more with less”: trimming the fat; getting back to basics; losing the bells and whistles; re-featuring; making tolerable tradeoffs; dialing down; innovating; repurposing.
Usually, I consider buzzwords and catchphrases as an affront, or a ruse to get me to think I matter as a worker. Then I remembered a column I read on Washingtonpost.com earlier in the year, “Eating Down the Fridge,” written by Kim O’Donnel, who happens to be a good friend of a good friend.
The column is O’Donnel’s challenge to her readers to skip trips to the grocery store for a week, and instead use what’s already in the fridge and pantry. It’s an experiment in doing more with less. (O’Donnel’s effort was inspired by fellow foodie Steven Shaw, co-founder of the web site eGullet.org, who endured his own no-shopping-for-a-week challenge.)
After re-reading it, the idea of getting back to basics in business offends me less, and almost seems noble.
Here’s an excerpt from O’Donnel’s piece that I especially like:
“A closer look reveals I’ve got more than I realize — plenty of onions and carrots, a few loose potatoes, fresh thyme, garlic, shallots and some kohlrabi — hardly an empty produce bin. And maybe that’s just the point behind Shaw’s challenge — to think more closely about what we really need during these financially difficult times rather than feeding a whim. Let’s be honest: how often do you throw away perishables that get stuffed into the fridge only to be forgotten? Just last night, I bid farewell to half a bunch of escarole that shoulda coulda woulda. Lazy and taking food for granted, you ask? Guilty as charged.”
And although O’Donnel is speaking of kohlrabi and shallots, she could just as well be talking about software migrations and expansion projects. In her EDF series, she urges readers to sign up and share their successes and failures. Ideas are exchanged, progress is made, fridges are cleared.
I’m no Pollyanna, mind you. Too many people have lost their jobs and life savings over the past few years and recovery will not be easy. But, perhaps, keeping the fridge example in mind, doing more with less can be seen as a recession blessing. It can inspire managers to choose what to cut and what to keep according to their value to the company in the long term, not just the face-value price tag.
An industry example: A major food and beverage company used one of its existing service providers to improve customer service levels across the IT infrastructure. The organization’s leaders looked at the resulting positive feedback from customers, the decrease in hold times and call abandonment, and the boosts in productivity levels.
The company then brought in the service provider to show its internal IT staff how to run the department to get the same kind of stellar results.
In doing so, the company avoided having to hire a multimillion-dollar outsourcer or pricey per-diem consulting firm — and, more importantly, it didn’t use layoffs as a cost-cutting measure. Its employees are happy, and the IT department is stealth.
Here’s to a healthier 2010, physically and fiscally.
(O’Donnel’s column has since moved to True/Slant, where she continues her occasional Eating Down the Fridge series. You can find it here.)
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