Mar 1, 2009

Tough times? These businesses adapt to survive and thriveBy TMCNet.com

It sounds like an ordinary sales call — but with one big difference designed to meet the challenges of the slow economy.

Two people from Bakersfield-based produce company Sun World International LLC paid a visit last week to a buyer for one of the company’s major customers.

The buyer was “ecstatic” to be asked what Sun World could do for him, chief administrator officer David Hostetter said. Why the fuss? The visitors were Sun World’s top brass — the CEO and the chief marketing officer.

“He just doesn’t see that,” Hostetter said.

Despite all the recent headlines, layoffs and cutbacks are not the only tactic local businesses are using to survive tough times. Many are changing the way they do business, keeping a closer eye on operations and, in some cases, launching new lines of business.

While some of the approaches are innovative, others are notable not because they are new or different, but because they suggest a determination to get through difficult conditions without unduly sacrificing jobs.

“Necessity is the mother of invention, right?” asked Ken Carter, broker at Bakersfield real estate agency Watson-Touchstone ERA. “So really, I think most advances happen through times of want. … You have to be smarter, you have to be quicker.” At Watson-Touchstone, formed in 2007 through a merger of two agencies, computer technology has allowed the company to endure a drop in sales that has forced painful staffing cuts. By using a new phone system and gearing more of its efforts toward online marketing, Carter said the agency may have put itself in a position to pull through the slowdown.

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