The Senior Executive Forum here at Harris Corporation has kicked off with a great session of introductions and key issues sharing.  Understandably, initiatives in the participating companies are mainly driven by the conditions of the economy.

Although the expectation would be to hear story after story about the horrors of recession and the difficult decisions being made as a result, many companies are seeing opportunities right now for major improvements.  These initiatives are currently a part of company strategies discussed by participants:

• Investigating undervalued businesses or business units to acquire
• Investing in self-service functionality to improve customer service while reducing personnel costs
• Investing in training for existing staff to improve capabilities without hiring additional headcount
• Grabbing market share from struggling competitors
• Improving customer relationship management

Of course, companies are also working to reduce their expense bases, and IT is leading the charge for many.  This is being approached through:

• Improvements in communication and implementation of video collaboration tools to reduce travel
• Improvements in enterprise portfolio management for project re-prioritization
• Strong focus on project ROI and self- or zero-funding initiatives
• Improvements in “business discipline” for reduction of unnecessary work effort
• Working with vendors to decrease overall spend while maintaining needed functionality

In general, the theme seems to be making the right strategic investments right now that will improve the company position related to cash flow in the near term, and lead to growth in the long term.