Sunday, March 21, 2010

Companies reinvest in business

Why companies are in panic of survival in hard economic conditions?

Companies reinvest in business
Primarily because this saves tax
Profit booking is kept lower to take this advantage
Tax escape forces companies to grow by,
saving money and investing it back in business

Public companies,
out of investor outcry can do lot varied things

Putting all money back in business makes it stronger
Money is put back to risk again

Rewards weigh higher than risks, in good time

When companies heading bankruptcy,
Where year on year earned profit is gone?
Since it was reinvested mostly, all profit was put to risk again



Growth changes it all

In bootstrapping phase,
Money is put back to maximize growth
What do you have to loose in early days?

Well ahead on growth path,
Growth rate reduces progressively
Steadily growing self funded re-investments
are consumed by reducing growth rate

There always is an ambient risk
Risk of loosing what ever is achieved so far

When award through growth is limited and risk is elevated
Why put all money to risk?



The gamble

It is gamble,
Put back what you won on repeated bet and multiply fast
It requires consecutive wins at single stretch
Lose once and loose every thing in a single shot

Successive wins raises risk appetite
Self motivating positive feedback builds euphoria faster


Loose wow good fortune in single attempt
And urge for recovery attempt becomes desperate

You feel,
need just one win and
recover everything in a single attempt
before you leave the game safely forever


To bet again requires funds
but funds are already lost

To recover larger fortune lost in single transaction,
you need equally large sums


Odds are against

Loaning funds for last chance
raises risk to survival threat

Repeat attempt with small funds or big
You loose most likely
At a stretch consecutive wins are rare

Even rarer than that is
“Repeat” chance of, at a stretch consecutive wins
which you wanted desperately

A loosing gambler,
must be kept away from playing further
on each round they attempt exponential risk

At a stretch winning gambler,
must be advised to slowdown and
focus on safety than blind growth
move out of the game before it breaks



Balance growth and safety

Recover investments early
Build survival funds

keep transferring part of earnings to safety stock on every cycle

Even you loose,
you walk out with reward

Loosing gamblers loose hard
Once wining gamblers loose harder

Accumulation is effortful
Loss is abrupt



Long played gamble

In bankruptcy situations,
Companies have business down
And costs of operations are high

When revenues are limited
Scale of operations creates cost constrain

Operations can not be get rid quickly

Scaling up operations is a slow effortful cycle
Scaling down is hard and often abruptly cost prone

Companies get locked with operational investments
Operational costs can not be slashed quickly


Business often in bursts
In good times fluctuations are upward
Operations can not handle instantly
Fluctuations stabilized with averaging loads

Operational scale up is capacity building

Since Operations cost,
Operational scaling also scales costs
These costs had to backup by earnings
Earnings depend on throughput from operations utilized by sales

Scale of operations is like style of living
You must downgrade when you can not afford any more



Operations’ scaling up or down has self inertia

Resource utilization affects operational efficiency
Operational efficiency require predictable and continuous load, matching capacity
Utilizations in bursts, offers lower efficiencies

Business when in bursts often demand for high throughput from operations
Throughput of operations is based on capacity, which is relatively inflexible
You can have under capacity utilization causing inefficiencies
You can not have over throughput than available capacity

JIT requires building capacity for peak load,
Peak load is often a short time burst

JIT can be costly as optimal resource utilization is not possible
Less than peak load capacity has to depend on averaging loads,
introducing sluggishness due to lead time

Abrupt changes to operations scale require shock treatment
Flush funds to build capacity and recruit people
Liquidate physical assets and layoff employees



Forces of dark

When on top of success,
every organization shall think itself as winning gambler

Remember Facit story.


System evolve to higher order,
it is continuous process

A revolutionary things changes the way business is done,
this is not everyday phenomenon

Disruption can be caused by alternatives of all kinds that are new and thought to be not so viable for practical reasons
Some categories die as superior one immerge, just under the nose you kept pride for


Watch for Market, Technology and Product against Evolution, Revolution and Disruption



When Safety takes precedence?

Unfortunately to maximize business scale,
Reinvestments are often utilized without taking strategic safety measures

Some part of reinvestment is anyway needed for expansion and growth
But not built a safety is dangerous
It is low occurrence but fetal impact situations

Remind yourself,
If it is possible, it is probable
If it is certain, prepare when time is on your side


When safety shall be built,
Exactly when you think it is not needed immediately now

Having “time on your side” means act now and immediate
A small contribution every time


Companies do not attain financial independence
They depend on recurring cash inflow
Brake it and empire collapse


Lack of building survival funds
Stops them from coming back in the game again


Safety had to built as growth rate starts reducing
Safety must be address when on top of the growth, when it looks unimportant



As growth is attained,
A good chunk of reinvestment must be put into
safety stock, for financial independence of company,
for survival fund for second inning and
for reboot resources if you want to go extreme

Safety stock shall provide financial independence
Some often buy real estate, buildings and rent out, investment in diversified industry, profitable competitor company stock
Something that requires minimum attention to maintain than core business line
Low ROI but safer than core company operations
Safety stock shall allow company to survive for at least 10 years with reduced core business operations are ceased

Survival funds shall be resources that can be liquidated when needed
to build company again after fetal losses
Survival funds are like helmets, which can take one time shock incidence
You need another helmet next time
You must build it again once utilized
You will need survival funds if you do not build safety stock
Use survival funds to diverge into new business

Reboot is extreme thinking, and not considered
Reboot resources are life extension measures
When lost everything and zero activity reached
Reboot must provide bread of the day till you find new start
You need reboot resources when survival funds are consumed
and economic conditions hard

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