Planning for 2009

The beginning of the meeting season coincides with the beginning of the planning season. Many manufacturers are well into the process with some distributors just starting. Looking into your crystal ball can be challenging, especially in light of recent uncertainty.

While the current credit crisis will be addressed by others, there are a couple of things that you can do. They are:

• Focus on managing / improving your cash position, and
• Plan for next year to “protect your base” while identifying selected growth areas.

To help you in your planning, we thought we’d share some research information that we’ve recently received:

• The 37th Annual Dilenschneider Trends report which has an interesting macro view of worldwide events and impact on the economies for a multitude of countries. There is also a forecast by country. It’s interesting reading.
• An analyst report on alternative energy trends. While solar gets the media play, wind is considered a faster growing industry in some parts of the country. State incentives and determinations of whom installs could represent an opportunity for you.
• If you are looking for information on the “best” performing large and small cities, consider the Milliken Institute’s Best Performing Cities Index which ranks U.S. metropolitan areas by how well they are creating and sustaining jobs and economic growth. This may help identify expansion opportunities as well as areas where you may be underperforming given the marketplace potential.
• If you are a planner and are wondering how to allocate funds, consider the GE-McKinsey nine box matrix strategy.

Also, we recommend that distributors and manufacturers consider DataSearch and MarketTrack from DISC Corp. MarketTrack can help you find niches within your marketplace that you may have overlooked, and help quantify the opportunity.

And if you are thinking about the energy efficiency market and/or alternative sourcing opportunities, consider our The Greening of the Electrical Channel and our 2007 Private Label Research Report.

If you are looking for additional information, give us a call. Sometimes the best information can also be easily captured through some targeted market research with your customer. We’ll also be conducting our 2009 ElectroIndustry Survey next month and will be sharing those insights on ElectricalTrends once the survey is complete. If you are attending the NAED Eastern and would like a “sneak peak”, contact us to schedule a meeting. We’ll also be at the other regionals early next year.

What research tools are yo u using to develop your 2009?