“Any successful business needs – and will always need – a lot of people, both inside and outside, to make it a winner.” J.W. Marriott, Jr.
The single most important component of any business transaction has always been and will always be people. Sometimes I wonder if we aren’t missing the boat. We read books and articles on leadership and try to keep up with the latest trends. We attend graduate school to learn how to write the perfect business plan, analyze financial reports and breakdown market demographics. Yet for all our cleverness and preparation, even the most sophisticated business model would be utterly ineffective if we didn’t factor in to the equation a keen understanding of people.

I know how difficult it is for so many out there – I’m out there with you. The economy continues to wreak havoc across the board and businesses of every size are struggling to stay afloat. But don’t lose hope. Regardless of the economy, it’s still possible to build a high-demand business. There are plenty of examples of successful businesses thriving amidst the maelstrom. Some succeed despite the recession while others succeed precisely because of the recession. It all comes down to demand. Are you in high demand? Is your business? Here are four business qualities that will always be in demand – regardless of the economy.

My wife and I are freaking out because our fifteen year old daughter, a sophomore in high school, is already receiving application letters in the mail from universities around the country. Considering that she’s our oldest child, and that this is another one of those “firsts” for her mom and me, you might understand why this will take some getting used to. But there’s more… To date we’ve lost more than eight million jobs in the short span of this recession which means that unemployment will likely remain uncomfortably high for years to come. What’s it going to take for our children to compete professionally as they prepare to enter what already is, and will continue to be, an extremely competitive job market? My wife and I sat our daughter down to talk about it…

One of our topics of discussion during a recent company meeting was the idea of “connecting”. At a time when many people in business feel helpless, and don’t think there’s anything they can do to improve their situation, we decided to challenge ourselves. We wanted to evaluate how we, as a company, connect with our customers through our product and services, as well as how we, as a team, connect with each other. The discussion was both productive and beneficial as we identified areas where our organization was doing well, as well as areas where we needed to improve. From top to bottom, everyone was held accountable because the responsibility of connecting is shared by all. By the end of the meeting we were all reminded of that most basic and fundamental truth: Business is all about connecting. The better we connect with our team, the better our team will perform. The better we connect with our customers, the more of them we’ll have. That’s good business. That’s the bottom line. Here are some of my notes from the meeting…

One good thing I’ll say about the recession is that it’s actually helped improve our organization – dramatically – because access to great talent is at an all-time high. In the last 15 months we have hired three new team members to fill key positions in our firm. Each of them is an A player – identified early on by a “topgrading” process to meet our strategic growth needs. The decision to hire in this difficult economy is certainly not an easy one, but with a “topgrading” process in place, you can reduce your risk while improving your competitive advantage. As the great Don Shula once said, “The one thing that I know is that you win with good people.”