Keywords: small and medium-sized enterprises; Economic crisis; Measures and suggestions; Cash is king; marketing management
As we all know, due to the impact of the American financial turmoil, many enterprises in the "Pearl River Delta" region of China have closed down, and enterprises that continue to produce are also struggling. Due to the long economic development time, the Yangtze River Delta has a relatively stable economic structure and little damage, but the prospect is not optimistic. According to the relevant data of the first quarter published by Zhejiang Provincial Bureau of Statistics, in 2009 1 quarter, there were 1.73 million loss-making enterprises in Zhejiang Province, an increase of 0.5 million over the same period of last year, and the loss area and loss rate were 30.0% and 30.4%, respectively, an increase of 7.7 and 1.2 percentage points over the same period of last year. The real estate market has also changed the hot scene of previous years. Since 2008, the real estate industry has been rapidly depressed, and a large number of commercial houses have been neglected, and scenes of sharp price reduction and discount sales abound. At the same time, the employment problem of college students who are about to graduate this year is very serious. In such a severe situation, many enterprises have to seek good strategies, such as layoffs, pay cuts, holding a group to keep warm and other measures to tide over the crisis. Therefore, although China will not have a financial crisis like the United States for the time being, it will definitely have an economic crisis. The global financial crisis is approaching. Under the current globalization of the world economy, the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States is not only a national economic crisis, but also a global economic crisis with a domino nature. Moreover, the crisis has affected many people and the scale is quite large. What measures should China enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, take to deal with it?
First of all, enterprises should actively respond to the crisis. First of all, they should aim at ensuring cash flow.
In other words, the cash of an enterprise cannot be broken, and it is necessary to keep the cash flow balance at all times in the operation. Small and medium-sized enterprises bear the brunt of the global financial turmoil triggered by the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States. At present, in the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta regions with a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises, the obvious problem is that small and medium-sized enterprises are facing the problem of "financing difficulties" and the funds are relatively tight. At present, the financial crisis has not completely improved, and the risk coefficient of enterprise operation is very high, which is greatly affected by the break of capital chain. If an enterprise had a solid foundation and a low asset-liability ratio, it can tide over the difficulties now. If the foundation is unstable, it is expected to rely on a large number of loans to maintain the operation of the enterprise. Once banks start to tighten monetary policy and raise the threshold of lending, the source of funds for enterprises will be gone, and it will be difficult to survive this round of storm. At any time, the role of bank loans is just icing on the cake, and the most fundamental thing is to control the debt ratio of enterprises to maintain in a reasonable range. Cash flow is more important than profit. When enterprises encounter difficulties, they can take measures such as reducing production and stopping production and wait for the financial environment to improve. Cutting production and stopping production in a short time does not mean that the enterprise will close down, but it can avoid the risk of loss. In short, we should be cautious, not act rashly, pay attention to risk management, keep the lowest debt ratio anytime and anywhere, and keep the highest cash flow anytime and anywhere. Although the development of the company will be limited, it doesn't matter, because only conservative operation and steady operation can help you tide over the crisis. This is the reality of conservative operation.
Second, the second is to reduce the proportion of product costs.
The difference of enterprise cost is very important to the survival and development of enterprises. Under the external environmental pressure of rising raw material prices and fierce market competition, low product prices often become a magic weapon for enterprises. How to achieve low prices? The answer is: low-cost operation. According to the formation process, cost control can be divided into three parts: control before production, control during manufacturing and control during circulation. For manufacturing enterprises, controlling product cost is the most important thing. For example, an electrical appliance manufacturer used to need about 100 screws to produce a microwave oven, but it needs 20 screws after improvement. After the slot design is adopted, the screws are completely eliminated, which not only saves this part of the cost, but also reduces the labor intensity and error rate. Good design can save costs from direct wages, direct materials, other direct expenses, indirect wages, indirect materials and other indirect expenses. There are many ways to control costs, such as shopping around in material procurement and choosing to cooperate with suppliers with good reputation, good products and strong strength; In the past, leaders went out to fly first class, but now they fly economy class, which can play a demonstration role in controlling costs; Some manufacturing enterprises with high electricity consumption can also consider driving at night, resting during the day, and using low-cost valley power production to save electricity costs. In the process of circulation, we should pay attention to avoid taking various promotional measures to offset the increase in profits regardless of cost.
Third, improve product quality and high-tech content to meet market demand.
At present, China's market supply is relatively surplus, coupled with the impact of the global financial crisis, many enterprises have poor product sales, increased inventory, increased costs, decreased benefits, and faced great difficulties in production and operation. At present, the market structure of our country has changed obviously, the buyer's market has basically formed, and the economic phenomenon that the product capacity exceeds the demand has appeared in many fields. It should be pointed out that China's current buyer's market is a buyer's market formed in the process of the transformation from a planned economy system to a market economy system, when the overall level of economic development is not high, the development of regions and industries is unbalanced, the degree of international competition is intensified, and the impact of the global financial crisis is deepened. In this situation, the market demand presents new characteristics.
First, demand dominates, which not only determines what and how much the enterprise produces, but also determines the price of the product and the size of the market radius.
Second, the diversity of demand is obvious. Under the condition of buyer's market, consumers' demand for products changes from single to diversified, from convergence to diversification, from low level to multi-level, not only to meet the demand quantity, but also to meet the demand quality; Not only hope the price is moderate, but also hope to be beautiful and practical; Not only physical consumption is needed, but also after-sales service is needed, and consumers have higher requirements for products.
Third, the selectivity of demand has increased. Under the condition of buyer's market, product source channels increase, product consumption substitution increases, and consumption behavior is more rational; Whether to buy, what to buy and how much to buy are all decided by users themselves, and the selectivity of demand is very prominent. In short, under the buyer's market conditions, the market demand is complex and changeable, the market mechanism plays a more significant role, and the market constraints are increasingly strengthened. "Survival of the fittest" has become a reality. In this regard, enterprises should accurately grasp the changes in market demand, correctly grasp the business direction of enterprises, and improve product quality and high-tech content of products.
Fourth, strengthen enterprise marketing.
Under the condition of market economy, marketing is the basic means for enterprises to finally transform products and operating results into social achievements and social values, and it is also the necessary way to win the market for customers. Enterprises seek survival and development, mainly in the competition for users and orders. Due to the long-term influence of the traditional system, many enterprises have outdated marketing concepts, single marketing methods and backward marketing team construction, which seriously restricts the production and operation of enterprises. Therefore, we must attach great importance to marketing and regard marketing as the primary work of production and operation.
1. Change the marketing concept
It is necessary to change the production first under the traditional system to the production first under the market economy and establish the business philosophy of "fixing production by sales"; Change from being satisfied with stabilizing users and regional markets to competing for more users and seizing larger markets, and establish a pioneering and innovative competitive concept; Change from the evaluation of output value index to the evaluation of sales income, and establish the benefit view of profit first.
2. Pay attention to marketing strategy
Scientific marketing strategy is an important magic weapon for enterprises to win competition. Strengthen market research, accurately understand the market information, not only pay attention to grasp the consumer psychology, be good at empathy from the user's point of view, actively tap the potential market demand, but also pay attention to understand the technical ability, capital strength and marketing means of competitors, and rationally choose the target market. According to the enterprise's own conditions and comparative advantages, determine the leading products, develop and expand the superior products with high added value, high technology content and high market share, especially attach great importance to brand management and be good at using brand advantages to promote product sales. Vigorously expand market space, at present, we should focus on developing rural markets, expand the share of products in rural markets, and actively explore international markets such as Europe, America, CIS and Africa. It is necessary to strengthen the construction of marketing network, rationally choose marketing methods, make full use of modern scientific and technological means, and strive to enhance marketing effects.
3. Expand the marketing team
It is necessary to strengthen the construction of marketing team through learning and training, selection and introduction, and deploy elite soldiers and strong generals to the front line of marketing. In particular, it is necessary to organize technicians to directly participate in product sales, so that sales work can be closely combined with product promotion, technical service and information feedback, win users with high-quality service and good reputation, and promote sales promotion. At the same time, it is necessary to strengthen the marketing incentive mechanism, directly link the sales of products with the income of marketers, and calculate rewards according to the amount of money recovered, so that salespeople can care more about the sales of products and then care about the survival and development of enterprises. Five, looking for new investment opportunities, integrating enterprise resources, turning crisis into opportunity.
When the global economy collectively enters the cold winter, "cash is king" has almost become the "cotton-padded jacket" for all those who keep out the cold. However, Tang Min, chief economist of the Asian Development Bank in China, gave a different answer. He believes that "cash is king" is not absolute. "Cash is king" is right for an enterprise, but there is probably a so-called set paradox, that is, a policy is right for every micro-subject. If the macro adds up, it may be wrong. At present, the overall investment in the market, especially private investment, is shrinking. In fact, the potential of private capital is great. On the one hand, the overall investment in the market is shrinking, on the other hand, private capital can't find a reasonable and effective investment method. Why are we holding cash? Of course, the first is to persist for a period of time, and the second is to seize the opportunity. No cash is needed at this stage. After this hurdle, cash is not king, and it is meaningless. From this perspective, "cash is king" is not an absolute winter trick, the key is to find new investment opportunities. Tang Min believes that the central government's 4 trillion yuan investment plan has too many opportunities for China enterprises, especially private enterprises. Because according to the plan of the National Development and Reform Commission, 45% will invest in infrastructure and 55% will invest in people's livelihood, including housing, education, health, new technologies and so on. Although these areas are new to many small and medium-sized enterprises, such a large-scale investment will certainly bring many new consumption opportunities. In order to survive and develop, enterprises should also adjust their industrial structure, product structure, capital debt structure, production structure and human capital. Stop projects with unreasonable structure, overcapacity and low return on investment, and actively launch projects with reasonable structure, large market demand and good profit prospects.
6. Pay close attention to national policies.
Enterprises should pay close attention to national policies and try their best to create living conditions. The government's policy of rescuing the market and increasing infrastructure investment will stimulate the demand of the construction industry, thus promoting the recovery of the raw materials and energy industries. Enterprises should take advantage of the country's current proactive fiscal policy and moderately loose monetary policy to introduce more effective measures to expand domestic demand and explore development opportunities in industries such as railways, ports, cement, steel, machinery, power grid construction and housing projects.
To sum up, in order to get out of the economic crisis, small and medium-sized enterprises can rely on their own strength on the one hand and external forces on the other, and some governments should take responsibility for external forces. Whether abroad or at home, the development of small and medium-sized enterprises often needs corresponding government policies, otherwise they will be very passive in the competition with large enterprises. However, as small and medium-sized enterprises, they must proceed from their own development and cannot pin their development hopes entirely on the country. Whether it is domestic or international, it is normal for enterprises to survive the fittest. Only by strengthening our own competitiveness can we persist in the once-in-a-century global financial crisis and even grow against the trend.
References:
[1] Ma Liping: Predicament and outlet of the development of small and medium-sized enterprises in China, Journal of Yunnan University for Nationalities, 1, 2009.
[2] Tang Min: Stimulating private investment has become a top priority, China Business Times, 0 1.08, 2009.
[3] Lu Guiping: Research on the Development of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises under the Economic Crisis, Foreign Investment in China, 2008, 12.
[4] Tang Min: Cash is not absolute, Daily News, 20081February 02.
[5] Fang Yiquan: Scientific development strategy is the basis for the development of state-owned small and medium-sized enterprises, Mechanical and Electrical Technology, No.3, 2007.
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