Employment Gains Signal Upward Potential, Says The Conference Board

/PRNewswire/ -- The 224 thousand gain in jobs (excluding the 66,000 additional workers on the census) in April is very welcome news. It clearly shows that this economic recovery can no longer be seen as a jobless one. Following three quarters of growing production, companies apparently find they can't squeeze out any more output without adding workers. This underscores yesterday's news that Q1 productivity growth slowed to a healthy 3.6 percent following the staggering rate of above 7 percent on average in the previous three quarters.

These job gains are comparable to what we've seen following other deep recessions, suggesting that U.S. business has become more confident that the recovery is sustainable. Manufacturing jobs are returning to a significant extent, and construction employment turned the corner in the previous two months. The key factor this spring will be continued gains in service-sector employment beyond health and education.

Continued employment gains of this size could put the economy on a solid 3 percent growth track and -- if productivity growth stays up - even boost it to 3.5 or 4 percent.

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Six Tips for Business Leaders to Consider as We Emerge from Recession

(BUSINESS WIRE)--Now that we are finally seeing some signs that we may be beginning to come out of the long recession, what should we be doing to fully take advantage of a recovery? That’s the question most middle market executives are asking today.

Rich D’Amaro, Chairman and CEO of Atlanta-based Tatum LLC, the nation’s largest executive service firm focused primarily on the Office of the CFO, has developed a list of six tips which should serve as a basic guide for financial executives in the coming months.

1. Identify and Maintain Your Strengths, and Your Best Customers

Identify the strengths that have enabled your success to date, and those that will be important in the future. Which capabilities and skills are most critical? What distinguishes your ability to serve customers effectively? Identify your highest-margin customers, and understand what you are “doing right” for them. Develop a game plan to protect and build on the strengths that have allowed you to be indispensable to these customers. Rather than cutting costs across the board, think about how you can shift resources to retain these high-margin customers, and attract more customers like them.

2. Capture Market Share: Consider Opportunistic Acquisitions

Recessions reshape industries faster than good times do, creating opportunities for those with the vision and ability to seize them quickly. Studies have shown that companies have twice the opportunity to change their relative position in an industry during a recession compared to growth times. Keep an eye on competitors, and stand ready to capture market share as other players allow cost cutting to damage their service and quality, or fail outright. Market valuations are still down for strong and weak companies alike, and companies with resources to acquire complementary rivals will earn higher returns than they can with internal, organic growth. Of course, acquire only companies that support your ability to be the best in the world at what you do, and work aggressively to capture synergies. New opportunities may also exist to gain new alliance partners, to move into adjacent markets, to adopt new pricing models, or to enter new channels. Some of these opportunities may be created by the failure of competitors, and some may be created by a new customer appetite for solutions that show measurable ROI or reduce risk.

3. Manage Liquidity As Closely As Profitability

Your company has been dealing not only with negative growth but also with liquidity constraints. During good times you may not have obtained sufficient lines of credit to sustain your company through economic adversity. Trying to maintain liquidity on a smaller revenue base can be crippling. Every balance sheet dollar has to be turned over faster to contribute to working capital. Maximize cash flow by matching inventories to sales and collecting from customers faster. Take advantage of increased supplier willingness to share risk and to provide favorable terms.

4. Keep Core Activities In-House, and Outsource Everything Else

Build and protect those “core” capabilities that differentiate you, while aggressively outsourcing anything non-core. Depending on your business, non-core activities may include IT maintenance, human resources administration, benefits and payroll, accounts receivable and payable, manufacturing, distribution or sales. You’ll get the benefit of service provider expertise and economies of scale, and will pay only for services you need. The biggest benefit of outsourcing, however, is that it shifts your focus, resources and capital toward serving your clients’ higher value needs and building your competitive advantage.

5. Create New Metrics and Manage by Them

Tight economics put a premium on your ability to understand and model the relationships between revenues, costs and margins. Think about metrics that focus on the building blocks of revenue and sustaining market share, including sales pipeline, customer satisfaction, pricing and market penetration. Metrics should look beyond core financials to provide management with insight into market dynamics such as market share trends. The good news is that the enhanced metrics you need during challenging times will help you manage more profitably and efficiently in good times as well.

6. Communicate and Reenergize!

A downturn is a scary time for all your constituencies. You now need to begin the process of re-energizing your employees and creating new trust among all your constituencies. Frequent and honest communication will go a long way toward maintaining a calm and motivated workforce. Create regularly scheduled forums to listen to concerns, and to update employees on the state of the company and on their roles in achieving new company objectives. Studies show that employees are motivated far more by a sense of shared purpose than by compensation. Create that shared purpose and reinforce it daily. Lead your company out of the recession with realistic confidence, candor and a renewed sense of direction.

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Georgia's Economic Recovery Depends on Small Business

(BUSINESS WIRE)--Georgia's economic recovery will depend on small business. That message is driven home in the newly updated Georgia Small Business Profile released today by the Office of Advocacy of the U.S. Small Business Administration. The most recent data show that the state has 177,445 small employers, and they employ 97.9% of the state’s workforce.

“Georgia depends on small business for jobs and economic growth,” said Shawne McGibbon, Acting Chief Counsel for Advocacy. “During this time of financial stress and economic instability, policymakers need to remember that the state’s small businesses provide the economic base for its families and communities.”

To further highlight the importance of small business, the updated profile notes that small businesses created all of the state's net new jobs from 2004 to 2005 (latest available data).

Not only does the state’s economy depend on the health of its small businesses, so too does the economy of the United States.

The U.S. has slightly more than 6 million small employers, or 99.7% of all employer firms, and they provide 50.4% of its private sector employment. These firms created 78.9% of the nation’s net new jobs from 2004 to 2005, and they generated more than half of the private non-farm gross domestic product.

The Office of Advocacy, the “small business watchdog” of the federal government, examines the role and status of small business in the economy and independently represents the views of small business to federal agencies, Congress, and the President. It is the source for small business statistics presented in user-friendly formats, and it funds research into small business issues.

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Former General Dynamics IT President Joins CommsFirst’s Board

BUSINESS WIRE --CommsFirst, Inc. announced today that Michael Chandler, former president of General Dynamics Information Technology has joined their board of directors.

“Mike’s extremely relevant experience will help address the next phase of CommsFirst’s growth and we look forward to his contributions as a member of our board of directors,” said Alan Silverman, CommsFirst President and CEO.

“Our business model is very focused on delivering critical communications, power, and applications to help clients deal with serious situations and we think Mike’s background, knowledge, and insights will be very valuable for guiding us in the years ahead.”

“CommsFirst’s managed services for deploying experts to provide tactical communications and early-hour situational assessments, as recently demonstrated by their response in the aftermath of Hurricane Gustav, will enhance disaster recovery for agencies, communities, and enterprises across the country,” said Michael Chandler.

“I'm really looking forward to working with the executive team and CommsFirst’s board to help scale their unique business model and innovative service offerings.”

Prior to joining CommsFirst, Mike was president of General Dynamics Information Technology, a diverse organization of 16,000 professionals providing systems integration, information technology, systems engineering and professional services to customers in the defense, intelligence, homeland security, federal civil and commercial sectors.

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