There are four major levers a contractor can pull to ensure the business performs well throughout all economic cycles.
- Diversifying across several counter-cyclical industry sectors and/or geographies.
- Focus on cross-training core team members so they are agile enough to move between types of projects and even geographies as the market changes.
- Develop aggressive and effective business development capabilities to be able to swim upstream like a salmon.
- Build strong forecasting capabilities to be able to see a market softening well in advance and to act upon that quickly.
Developing the people, processes, tools and discipline required to forecast out 18-24 months always makes teams stronger. Exercising teams to really think through what would happen if either their business doubled or halved in the next 18-24 months it makes them more prepared for either.
