Monday, November 03, 2008 Services, food to survive
IN a crisis, business ventures involving services and trainings are most likely to thrive.
“Other than the food businesses, training services might be something to look into since a lot of retailers would like to improve their skill set and that of their personnel. They want to ensure that their staff is equipped to deal with various customers in times like these,” said Melanie Ng, president of the Philippine Retailers Association (PRA) Cebu.
Ng noted, though, that people in Cebu still have buying power.
But she stressed that businesses need to develop their product lines and merchandising to get through this year and to prepare for uncertain times in 2009.
She said Cebu’s position as a top emerging outsourcing destination in the world in a recent international survey will boost infrastructure growth, create more jobs and increase the buying power of consumers, which will benefit retailers in the long run.
Training
She added that PRA Cebu’s commitment to its 70 members is “to hone their skills and help them improve their products in order to efficiently cut cost.” Hence, PRA Cebu has lined up various training topics for retailers, such as visual merchandising and customer service.
But Bernie Liu, chief executive officer of Golden ABC Inc., said some retail companies may be forced to cut overhead costs, postpone expansion and renovation plans, and reduce inventories to survive 2008.
He noted that one of the biggest and most flexible yet most emotional area to cut cost is personnel.
“A company should not think about who it’s laying off, but rather whose jobs it is saving by doing what it has to do to stay in business. It may sound heartless, but this can actually mark the upside of the economic downturn,” he said.
He added that when consumer confidence and spending are dampened, businesses should provide more value to their products and come up with something unique. They must invest on branding and marketing, and exploit technology, among others.
To further cut costs, he said, retailers and vendors may consider outsourcing certain functions, like logistics, warehousing and distribution.
“We might see it on our shelves with inventories hardly moving as we planned…. Just as the Christmas season is approaching, we feel a little optimistic about the business; yet, some experts have said that this may be the worst holiday economics in decades…. Cut your expenses when you can but don’t cheapen the customer’s experience,” he said.
Liu assured, though, that business run on cycles and eventually, consumers will come back.
The key, he said, is to figure out now what they will want and how they will get it.
Liu said that Golden ABC—which owns apparel brands Penshoppe, Memo, For Me and Oxygen—has survived and continues to grow amid worst times, including the political turmoil in the late 1980s, the Mt. Pinatubo eruption and the Asian financial crisis. (NRC)
