Posts Tagged ‘Capitalize on the Recession’

Visualizing the Credit Crisis

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009

by Michelle LaBrosse, PMP

Like most Americans, I am pretty riled up by the greed of Wall Street and how this whole situation has been handled by the US Government. I am on a group on Linkedin called the Global Economic Crisis to better understand the current climate and how to best help project managers capitalize on the times. I came across this ten minute video presentation, on the Linkedin group, by Jonathon Jarvis. It is an exceptionally good visual presentation on how the credit crisis was created. http://vimeo.com/3261363?pg=embed&sec=

Project managers are in a fantastic position because they are the people who help others get things done. What I have found in my travels and interactions with other project managers is that as a group, we have been uniformly conservative with our own credit management and were exceptionally good at risk management. As a group, we have lived by the “new” rules that others who lived by the ‘old” rules are just learning how to adopt.

Old Rules Driven by Greed and Inflation

Old Rules Driven by Greed and Inflation

New Rules - Create Value

New Rules - Create Value

The Trends that Help Project Managers Capitalize on the Recession

Friday, March 13th, 2009

Carey Earle has captured the top trends facing us in business now. She was a guest on our Capitalize on The Recession radio show today. On that show, we explored how these trends can be used by project managers to capitalize on the recession. Here are the top ten trends we explored on the show: Economic Slim-Fast, Whole life living and healing, Entertainment as escapism, Back to the basics, Novel perks, DIY, The Full Monty, Generation G, Redefining Community, and ECO-Buzz.

See more on Carey’s Top Ten Current Trends.


Listen to the Capitalize on the Recession Radio Show
to see how Project Managers can capitalize on the recession using these trends.

Capitalize on the Recession Using Project Management

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009
Michelle LaBrosse, PMP
Working in the studio with my co-host, Bryne Edwards

Working in the studio with my co-host, Bryne Edwards

When times appear hopeless, and you show up offering hope and solutions, everyone wins.   As Project Managers we have the skills needed to pull us out of this recession.   This is why Cheetah Learning just did our March Know How Network article titled – “Are You Shovel Ready?” and the podcast “Calling All PMPs to Rebuild America”. And it’s why we are doing a live radio show today called Capitalize on the Recession.  It relates to being ready as a Project Manager to pounce on opportunities as they emerge.  Here is how you can capitalize on the recession as a project manager:

1. Be prepared to create value for other people FAST.   The faster you can create value, the more demand you will create for yourself.   You can learn how to do this by mastering Cheetah Project Management – this is a technique I created over 8 years ago to complete projects of significant value in under three months.

2. Know how you can leverage your innate strengths to be of the most service to others.   We are all different and those differences are what create the most value for others.   You can learn how to leverage your differences to create more value for others with our PM Strength Builder course.   

3. Make sure the commitments you are considering pursuing will make sense in another week, another month, and another year.  A good way I have found to do this sense making is with doing a project agreement on goals I am considering pursuing.   You can get a free project agreement template from the Cheetah Learning PM Tools Page. 

4. Learn how to best manage resources so you can complete your projects with a variety of non-financial capital (i.e. you don’t have to sit around and wait for the credit markets to unfreeze to pursue your goals).  I teach you how to do this in the Capitalize on the Recession online course. 

5. Ferret out the emerging opportunities that offer the most chances for you to create value.   This is based on how competitive you are in the area where the opportunity is emerging.  Not every opportunity is right for every person to pursue.   The better you can establish your competitive advantage, the more value you can create, faster.   We discuss how to do this on the live Capitalize on the Recession radio show and in the online course.

Playing by the “new rules” – Capitalize on the Recession

Friday, February 6th, 2009

by Michelle LaBrosse, PMP

Old Rules - Don't Work Anymore

Old Rules - You Can

To Capitalize on the Recession You have To Create Value for Others by tne New Rules

To Capitalize on the Recession You have To Create Value for Others by tne New Rules

Where is the good news on the recession? Lets look two people doing well and what is it they are doing:

My brother – he is a salesman for a technology company that sells products into a wide variety of technolgoy companies. He is one of their top performing sales guys because he knows how to use the products and he knows the customers. There is absolutely nothing slick about this guy – he is just a technogeek. But what is unique about him- he is quite willing to get on a plane and travel all over the country to teach his customers how to use the high end tech equipment they purchase. They let a couple of sales guys go who just weren’t performing as well as him – but he got their territory. Why is he doing well – he is creating a lot more value for his customers than other people who were doing the same job. This guy is steady eddy – his main commitment is to doing a good job for his customers. He hasn’t kept jumping jobs to go after more and more money. He became the best at what he does to create exceptional value for his customers.

My friend Randy who is an Electrician. Randy is a poster child for “who moved my cheese.” Eighteen months ago when the higher paying lucrative commercial electrical work was decreasing, he started going after the longer duration, lower paying government contracts. Those contracts have expanded as his firm has completed their project work on time and in budget. His business is booming. I work with numerous contractors on my various building projects – most have really missed the concept of getting the job done for what you actually bid in the time you said you would. And they wonder why they can’t find work. The ones who deliver consistent exceptional value like Randy are busy.

The new rules favor those who create value for others, FAST. Doing what you said you were going to do, at the price you said you were going to do it for, in the time you said it was going to take you – yes this is what people will still pay for these days. And guess what this is considered – doing good PROJECT MANAGEMENT.

Here are two mind maps that show the old rules and the new rules. There are opportunities a plenty for people willing to create value for others, FAST. But you have to be prepared to play by a new set of rules. These rules are really not new for many of us though who refused to play by the old rules – I suspect those of us who have been playing by the new rules for years are the ones who are actually doing well in this recession. I did a podcast on this for Cheetah Learning’s February Know How Network Column called When Passion Meets Recession.