Miles Kimball Chief Offers Recession Survival Pointers

Krangel doled out some three dozen tips, some fairly simple, others more complex. Here’s a selection of them:

• Seek strategic opportunities to buy right. “If you have the cash or a parent firm that's able to help you, there are great values out there now,” Krangel said.
• Deeply scrutinize marginal activities. “Everything we do, if it isn’t incrementally adding profit, we stop,” he said. “That’s a little harsh, and you can’t stop innovating, but you have to look at your business from a different perspective.”
• Evolve without losing your customer base. Miles Kimball, Krangel said, “has a look of about 1961. We have a great customer base, but online our business doesn’t come from 62-year-olds; they’re 52. So online, we’re doing deep merchandise analysis to find out where our merchandise categories are growing. If you just do the matchbacks, you’ll lose the point.”

Krangel reeled off other quick tips rapid-fire. They include the following:

• Be mindful of, and understand, megatrends.
• Innovation has to continue, even in a downturn.
• Understand where your profit is coming from.
• Make your products relevant to your customers’ changing needs.
• Sales increases in the next few years will be from gains in market share.
• Develop a customer-centric culture.
• Focus on core customers, and be prudent with your prospecting dollars.