In This Edition – Another Company Survives the Great Recession

Welcome to September and the beginning of the end of 2009!  With talk of the Great Recession hitting bottom and a long and slow recovery to look forward to, we are pleased to share the next installment of our “What’s Working” series.  This month we tell the story of Conklin Office Furniture, a company we’ve worked with for more than 20 years.

If you didn’t have a chance to read our last edition of the Vann Group Journal, our “What’s Working” series features companies and business ventures that are doing well in this Great Recession.    Our purpose is to illustrate that best business practices really do work and that companies who adopt and consistency follow them fare better than those that don’t when times get tough.    Put simply, surviving a downturn is not luck. 

Sound Business Practices

We’re excited to share with you the recent activities at Conklin Office Furniture, because they illustrate sound business practices that we’ve often advised and written about.  Specifically, this company:

• Knows exactly what fuels its economic engine and can read its sales pipeline to accurately predict revenue.
• Saw the impact of the downturn before it hit and was able to proactively cut costs using a scalpel instead of an ax.
• Always looks for new growth opportunities and created new sales channels in areas that began paying off quickly.
• Applied these sound business practices and is now able to pursue important expansion and marketing efforts at a time when countless others are shelving plans and contracting operations.

Read the Conklin Office Furniture story to on to find out how. 

“Short Term Smarts Saves Long Term Strategy”

Conklin Office Furniture has been a leading provider of used office furniture throughout the Northeast Corridor since 1981 and has recently expanded into the Southeast and the Midwest. The company offers premium used office furniture at a fraction of the cost of new furniture, meeting the needs of corporate facility managers, office designers and purchasing agents every day. 

A strategically focused company, Conklin is always looking ahead to the next steps for continuous growth and improvement and prior to the official announcement of this Great Recession the company had big plans for expansion.  Today, while companies all across the globe have shelved expansion plans and new marketing initiatives, Conklin is moving full speed ahead.  It’s not because they weren’t affected by the economic downturn, and it’s not luck.  Conklin’s survival and success is due to these sound business practices:

• Pipeline management
• Proactive cost cutting with a scalpel instead of an ax
• Opening new distribution channels and hitting sales hard
• Pursuing the long term strategy

Pipeline Management

“Every business should be able to read their sales pipeline and predict the near term revenue outlook,” says Conklin Office Furniture Owner, Franco (Fran) Arnold.  “For us, by looking at design requests, requests for quotes, and WIPS, or Works in Progress; we can pretty accurately predict income going out six weeks.” 

Because the management team at Conklin understands their pipeline so well and watches it constantly, Fran knew in January that March was going to be rough.   He knew he had to prepare the company for recession/depression mode.

Proactive Cost Cutting with a Scalpel

Knowing this as early as he did, Fran was able to proactively reduce staff in areas that would not hamper the company’s ability to deliver its brand promise or continue to move forward with expansion plans.

This was a good first step, but Fran believed he needed to further reduce expenses.  At that point, rather than cutting staff that he knew was critical to the company’s success, he decided to reduce everyone’s salary, including his own.  The success of this tactic was in the delivery.  He brought his team together and explained that by everyone giving up something, the company would save eight full time positions.  It was clear to all that if those reductions were made, it would impact the company’s long term future as well as over burden the remaining staff in the short term.

Sales, Sales, Sales

At the same time, Conklin Office Furniture opened new sales channels in the Southeast and Midwest, areas that had been previously identified as ripe for opportunity.  Because they had done their homework in scoping where to direct the new sales people, those new channels began paying off fast and just when the company needed them to.

Additionally, the company hit sales hard everywhere, going after every lead and working with older quotes in the pipeline.  Everyone knew they needed to support sales and was prepared to do whatever it took to fulfill orders.  If a customer needed something in a rush, they got it.  No one said no.

Sound Business Practices Pay Off -- Pursuing the Long Term Strategy

By taking these measures, Conklin Office Furniture is now able to continue its expansion plans.  They’ve recently purchased a new building and a new factory and they’re in the process of expanding capacity five-fold.  They’re also in the midst of a rebranding effort and will soon launch new marketing initiatives to fuel demand for the increased capacity.

If Conklin had not been able to read their pipeline, not taken those proactive cost cutting measures, and not stepped up their sales activity; the company would be in a very different place today.  Not only would their expansion and marketing plans be on hold, it’s even possible that they would have been forced to cut some of those critical positions initiating a period of contraction.  Instead they are well positioned for the future.  But Fran doesn’t take anything for granted.  He’s still watching his short term numbers every day.

If you have any questions about anything you’ve read here – or think you might benefit from the expertise of the Vann Group, please contact: