Bull markets take you for long, exciting rides. Riding a bull is dangerous if you get thrown off and trampled, but the real risk is that the bull will get away from you and leave you behind. Bulls favor the bold expanders. The motivators. The salesmen.

Bear markets are killers. They are mean and savage and like destruction. They are hunters. If you don’t have a strategy for survival, the bear will maul you and leave you bleeding and dying in a ditch. Bears favor the smart planners. The guys who get it right the first time. The steady executors. The cost-controllers. The accountants. The networkers.

Whichever type you are, think about these ways of avoiding the worst of China’s bear traps:

Classic bear-trap — Negotiating for the short-term win and losing a long term ally (Sometimes known as crapping where you eat)

Surviving a long bear market is even more about ‘relationship’ than winning in bullish times. Only now, instead of meeting in Xin Tian Di to discuss your grand expansion plans, you’re more likely to hunker down in Starbucks to talk to other business owners about swapping-services or getting special deals to cut costs on necessities. That’s a lot tougher when you’ve pissed off people on your bull rampage.

Bear trap 2 — Quick, violent moves. Too much reacting – not enough planning.
Financial markets drop off cliffs — but for B2B and B2C business the slowdown is really more like sinking in quicksand. If you can learn to find your level — and something to hold on to — then you’ll keep breathing. It’s the thrashers that sink and die in a long-term bear market. Don’t change policy or standard operating procedure every time you get frustrated or run into an obstacle.

Bear trap 3. The HR Paradox

Some managers tend to believe their own hype about having the hottest shop in town, and they do enjoy swaggering around and telling their employees how lucky they are to be part of the elite. But when things head south and people get nervous about the future, it’s the best of your staff that will be applying to more stable companies — and getting in. Bear Killers know how to hold on to good people and build strong teams in times of adversity. The bull boyz tend to lose the brains and keep the balls — which is a tough way to survive.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 5th, 2008 at 8:27 am and is filed under Bear wrestling. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.