Catalyst Strategic Consultants - What is Doug Bouey thinking about these days?

Re: Doing Biz in the Boom

It’s not just true in Alberta – but it’s really true in Alberta. Extreme demand has driven all the slack out of the system. The honeymoon - meeting the insatiable requirement for goods and services (and making great profits) – with spare inventory and surplus human capital is over. The profits don’t have to be over, and chasing the incredible opportunities is still on, but fulfilling the supply side the old, easy ways is done. Really done.

Lately, Presidents in our sessions are grabbling with:

Trying to source and place high end people here and abroad and finding them locked in - while those who have them now are frantically trying to hold on to them.

New constraints emerging. In Calgary, for one company, it’s downtown office space, for another, it’s sourcing concrete. For others, it’s transport.

Bottlenecks on services - smaller companies going down the pecking order to larger clients – from getting wells drilled to securing processing – it’s “take a number…”

What will happen? Will the “victims” just sit with their wrecked plans and forecasts and squawk? Or will those who have laid and continue to build the creative groundwork for collaboration with suppliers and service providers be nimble now and be able to deliver? Some shockers have been in house-building with one company going bankrupt, another tendering money back on homes now unbuildable at any profit.

Who wins? Those who:

Commit now to arrangements that will allow providers to earn a good buck in exchange for reserving capacity

Can cross lines, bringing supplier firms into their world

Refuse to let cumbersome procurement arrangements defeat efficient suppliers: creativity trumps bureaucracy > Build cultures that young people want to be part of

Can wrap themselves around alliances and other unusual arrangements of collaboration with providers

Are ready to jump when the jumping’s good

Can go back to 1st principles: “What are we trying to do here? ….”

Many require stepping away from conventional modes of supply thinking and operating skillfully in trust. We help our clients discriminate and be sophisticated with trust – both in generating and preserving high trust relationships.

Keep your head up! – and don’t fall victim to the other casualty of the boom. If you are so busy chasing opportunity that you sacrifice internal coordination – that’s not smart. But I am seeing firms put internal meetings last – and they are suffering from slow fragmentation as conflicting, unsupportable commitments are made and the unresolved issues pile up.

Doug Bouey