It was 14th February, he was holding my hand. I could see the love in his eyes for me. He took a ring from his pocket and said to me “will you marry me”? On hearing that I was happy and surprised. I nodded my head, he was happy. We went to a nearby restaurant, where he gave me the best sad romance novels as a gift. We spend hours, laughing, enjoying the delicious food, with drinks. George and I made the arrangements, for our wedding. He took some days off from his company. After one month, we married. All of our friends and family members joined.
Everyone was joyful, we all were dancing. One day, he was returning home, from the office. It took him more time. It made me more worried. I called him, but I heard the voice of a doctor on the other side.”Mrs. Jean Wilson, We are sorry, your husband George is no more.”I rushed to the hospital. In the emergency ward, when I stepped in. My eyes couldn’t believe that the wounded person was my George. Dr. James said that George’s car met an accident with a truck. Many people turned up at George’s funeral. George’s legal advisor, Jack Robertson, was also there. He handed over to me an A4 envelope.
For so many days, I was crying, all the moments we spent together, were playing in my mind. After 2 months, I opened the envelope. It was George’s will. He has transferred his company’s ownership to me. So it took me a while to embrace the bitter reality, that George is no more.
I decided to move on with my life. So I formerly joined his position. I was sitting in the meeting room, with my team. We were discussing, our performance, for the last months. I was shocked to see, that my company’s income statement was showing a net loss. Our customers have declined by 20%.In spite of downsizing, it didn’t work out, the way, my team and I had planned. So we decided to do, something, in order to remain afloat. After having a long discussion of one hour, we came up with a road map, which was as follows:
Change Management
We first made up our mind, to evaluate, the pros and cons of the current product line. Many of us, came to a conclusion, that it should go, some changes, which were necessary, to do, as compared to our competitors. We also worked on our delivery process. It also had some issues. We also saw the report of customers’ complaints. The turnaround time was more, some were really angry with us on this. The process took a while to, show its results. Many of my colleagues were sent to training. They also showed some resistance in the beginning. Furthermore, other products which were not performing at par. Those were gradually replaced with new ones. We also set new KPI’s for ourselves, some of us, were assigned, to monitor and report to me, on monthly basis.
Financial analysis
My team and I also took into consideration, our other statements as well, for example, we also studied our balance sheets, for the last months. We noticed that some of our fixed assets were not yielding the income, which was very low. We also talked about our liabilities, such as loans and our deferred payments to our creditors. They were increasing substantially. So came up a framework, whereby, our earnings could increase, in order to meet our liabilities.
My finance department proposed, some new investment options, others told, to sell the underperforming assets. Further, while some disagreed and told me to opt for leasing options. This was a tough one; I was taking a holistic and realistic approach towards it. So I gave go-ahead, for selling the assets, and the income was invested in the best-performing stocks. This started, to show us some improvement over the next few months.
Marketing Strategy
We also saw our marketing, planning. My team and I saw, that in many places, our products were not promoted well. I even took my team, to different outlets, and did a survey, and found out, that our prospective customers didn’t know about us. We also saw and compared the plans of our competitors, we were lacking behind in product awareness, on-time delivery, etc. I sat, with my marketing company, increased their budget. We all agreed that it will allocate to current and getting new clients.
Employees development
For our success, our team was key and was the center of our every decision-making process. We all agreed on conducting fresh appraisals, in order to learn and implement, important changes. We made new performance indicators. All of us agreed on rewarding any employee, for a great idea. I noticed that after some time, our team morale was raised; they started to give their heart to work. Many customers gave us better feedback. We also introduced leaves for fathers and mothers. We also gave them assurance, that their job will be secured.
Reading books
Whenever I returned home, I head to my living room, which was filled with the best books to read when starting a business. It gave me creative ideas about managing my company.
I even learned, to improve my skills:
- Decision making
- Creativity
- Not giving up
- Patience
- Leadership
Conclusion
Within a year, my team and I were able to turn around our company. Our hard work earned us success. We celebrated, all our friends, relatives, suppliers, etc. showed up. My eyes were filled with tears. I missed George that day. My team and I paid tribute to him. I went to his grave. I thanked him, for trusting me and putting a huge responsibility of a company on my shoulders.
