“that you learn who’s been swimming naked.”

The day to day reality is starker. In boom times, a 

; in a recession the tide goes out, and some boats get left high, dry, and out of the game. We are all sailing in to this storm, we will not all be sailing out.

A recession is like going to war. In order to succeed, you reallocate your resources, you cut the fat, and you fight for every inch of territory. You sacrifice indulgence; you buck up your allies when they are weakened; you make sure you have the best strategy; you all understand together that you must win.

But you do not compromise your values, not ever. Recessions are times when many people argue that soft headed; ‘high minded’ ideals can be compromised. That a short term victory tomorrow – to win a battle – is worth cutting corners on the foundations on which your company and your life has been built.

In the brutal Canadian construction recession of the early nineties, EllisDon very nearly went bankrupt. Since then, we didn’t create new values, we merely rediscovered and reinforced the values on which the company was built (and which we had, temporarily, forgot). We have friends and allies now – clients, consultants, subcontractors, each other – who came back for that reason alone, and who will stay with us as long as we are good to our word, and true to our values.

I am sending this message out into the ‘blogosphere’ (whatever that is) so that anyone who reads this knows that - not only are the people at EllisDon not going to compromise - we are going to rely on our core values as our key strategic weapon in this war.

We have no intention of losing. See you on the other side.

Warren Buffet is politer than I. “It’s only when the tide goes out”, says he, “that you learn who’s been swimming naked.”

ONE GENERATION NOW: I have this thought about Boomers, Gen X’s, Gen Y’s, and all the demographic groupings. Which is: it might just be over.

OK, it’s two thoughts. The first is that when boomers (like me) were younger, we planned on living quite differently from our parents – we wouldn’t be slaves to our jobs, to materialism; we would insist on greater balance in our lives, we would not just hold on to our ideals, we would live them. And we knew that our time was coming. Thirty years on, it appears that we boomers have become our parents, and now we pay consultants to tell us how to best work with younger Gen Xers, and Gen Y’s, who absolutely insist on – guess what – more balance, more freedom. We are advised that only employers who take these aspirations into account have a shot at attracting these talented people to our firms.

All of which is OK with me - I just have this déjà vu thing happening.

The second thought is that these recessions, they make for tough choices, choices which absolutely everyone would prefer to avoid.

This is not some old guy’s blurb about how the tough realities of life force people to abandon their ideals, because I think that many people will respond differently to the choices they will be faced with.

What I am guessing is that the responses to these choices won’t be split along generational lines. I think lots of younger people will decide to dive in hard, while many absolutely won’t. And I am seeing many older people choosing to continue their careers, some because they have discovered that they would miss them too much, some because they have no choice. (Me, on the other hand, I’m thinking maybe I can still find some of that balance I keep promising myself and my family).

When we emerge from this downturn, we will all of us be more aligned in experience, perspective, and hopefully in values. If so, I definitely won’t miss these demographic silos. Or the consultants.

One Generation Now

There is a theory of ‘corporate branding’ that proposes that the very best companies can credibly reduce their global image to one single word.

Volvo: Safety
Mercedes Benz: Prestige.
Federal Express: Overnight.

"You have to reduce the essence of your company down to a single attribute, an attribute that nobody else owns in your category."

"Once a brand owns a word, it's almost impossible for a competitor to take that word away from the brand."

Here is the one word attribute that I honestly believe can and should apply to EllisDon: Trust.

First: Because we are willing to trust each other - that is the way we strive to run this company. Talk to the people who work here. Read through our website. We aren’t perfect, but mutual trust is the founding value at EllisDon.

As importantly: Because we tell our clients that we have integrity, and are completely open. That we will show them everything. That we will treat them fairly and ask to be treated fairly. Same thing with subcontractors, suppliers, architects, other consultants, and everyone we deal with. In short that we are trustworthy: every one of us, every day, all day.

That trustworthiness has to be the reality - the experience every day - the very existence of each of us at EllisDon. We should justify our very existence on that word.

I would be happy to hear back – candidly, critically, and of course in trust – from anyone who reads this message.

PS: There was a great election night discussion on CNN about how Barack Obama owned the word ‘change’. Both Hilary Clinton and (later) John McCain started with ‘Experience’, and when they realized that wasn’t resonating in this environment, tried to go to ‘Change With Experience’, but they couldn’t, because (President Elect) Obama already owned ‘Change’ and that was what people wanted.

The Art of War In a Recession

Transform

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Finance

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