A few weeks ago, we took a creative look at the current economic crisis. After we learned in the earlier articles how bad thinking caused the crisis and how to see the opportunity in a crisis, I want you to take creative action today: Here are thirty-three questions that you may want to discuss with your management team alone or as part of a one-day workshop with THINKERGY. Find your creative responses to the current financial crisis by getting answers to the following thirty-three idea-evoking questions.

1. What chances and opportunities does the crisis offer for your company?
2. What problems are caused by the crisis? How can you solve these problems with your market offerings? What new products, services or solutions should you create now to cater to these crisis problems?
3. What industries or customer segments are not or not so much affected by the crisis? And who benefits from the crisis? How can you get into business with such crisis-resilient customers?
4. What do your customers need in times of crisis? How have customer needs shifted due to the economic crisis? How can you re-cluster your customers into different segments based on their identified crisis needs?
5. What new offering — a new product, a new service, a new solution — could you develop and launch now to meet crisis needs?
6. What business units or assets should you divest now to raise cash?
7. What areas or topics should you invest in right now to prepare for the next upswing?
8. What are your core competencies? How can your core competencies create value to master the crisis?
9. How can you adjust your market offerings to better meet crisis needs?
10. How can you modify your products and services so that they become irresistible even in times of a crisis?
11. What counter-intuitive actions should you take now in order to differentiate yourself from the herd?
12. Who can you partner with to benefit from the current crisis? How can you multiply your sales by creating alliances and networks?
13. Who else can you approach to improve your financial position?
14. Who should you hire now to broaden or deepen your expertise?
15. How can you make your business more fun in crisis times?
16. How can you show your customers that you care for their needs in times of crisis?
17. How can you repackage your offerings to adjust the value-price trade-off to make more sales during the crisis?
18. How can you save money without firing your employees?
19. What costs are essential expenditures for your business? Are nice to have? And are a pure luxury in crisis times?
20. What sacrifices can senior executives make to become credible leaders in crisis time and positive role models for their followers?
21. What limiting beliefs should you abolish now?
22. What are your relative competitive strengths? How can you multiply your sales by aggressively playing on your strengths now?
23. What are your weaknesses? What are things that bug you? How can you use the crisis as an opportunity to fix your bugs?
24. What are critical delivery gaps in your offerings that you have? When is the best time to close these gaps?
25. How can you re-position your brands to sell more in crisis times? How could launching a new brand help you to boost your sales during the crisis?
26. How are the rules of the competitive game in your industry being changed by the crisis? How can you break or proactively change the rules of the game to increase your sales and market shares?
27. What could you do that no one in the industry has so far dared to do?
28. How can you invest excess cash now to create true differentiation from other players in your industry?
29. How can you profitably outsell your competitors during the crisis in order to generate revenue?
30. How can you reorganize your processes to save money?
31. How can you readjust your channel to increase sales in the crisis? Where else can you sell your offerings?
32. How can you change your communication to the market and the general public to attract customers in times of crisis?
33. How can you boost your sales through special promotion campaigns that hit the customer’s nerve in a recession? How can you more creatively promote your products and services?

Conclusion: Eugene Ionesco noted: “It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question.” After some consideration, I decided to share these questions from our THINKERGY Ideation-Toolset with you to help your firm master the crisis. As stated earlier in this column, we all have a responsibility to turn all the doom-prophecies of an impending global recession into a self-defeating prophecy. I have just done my part. Now take the time and do your part: First ideate. Then take action on your most promising ideas.

© Dr. Detlef Reis 2009. This article was published in parallel in the Bangkok Post under the same title on 5 February 2009.