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Using Strategy to Build Long Term Resilience w/ David Yetman

By Anthony Taylor - February 10, 2021

David Yetman is an award winning business development specialist from St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada. David is currently attending Harvard University studying business resilience, and operating his own consultancy called Yetman Consulting, which works to help businesses develop long-term business resilience. One of his main focuses under the umbrella of 'resilience' is helping to increasing margin.

On this episode of the Strategy & Leadership Podcast, David joins us to share how you can develop resilience for yourself personally and for your business, advice for small businesses low on cash, how a consultant can help you with your business model, and much more.

 

 

Here's a breakdown of the episode:

  • What is business resilience, and why is it important?

David explains why resilience is always important, and that most CEOs are already thinking about it constantly. It's important to acknowledge that resilience can be dissected on both the personal and business level. On the personal level, your mental, physical and spiritual wellbeing will all factor in. When looking at the business perspective, resilience means having systems, processes, people and assets in place that will help you overcome short term turbulence and uncertainty. In David's work specifically, he's focused on helping businesses increase their margin, therefore making them more resilient. 

 

Is your organization preparing for a strategic planning session? Make sure you ask the right questions first:

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  • How to make yourself more resilient

When it comes to making your personal self more resilient, it all starts with being aware of what makes you strong as an individual and what drives your success. Next, you have to take an honest look at your physical health, mental health, nutrition, sleep schedule and energy levels. David notes that you don't have to be a workaholic to be productive. If you focus on being productive during a part of your day, you can intentionally leave yourself more time to spend time on things and with people that bring meaning to your life.

  • What he sees many businesses struggling with

David breaks down some of the more common challenges he sees businesses struggling with. He stresses the fact that most small businesses have no time to self actualize or be self aware - especially now. Instead, they're stuck in survival mode. In practice, this looks like spending way too much time trying to find and solve HR issues. The next big challenge is cash flow. Not having enough of it will cause enough internal turbulence all by itself, which is why David focuses on this aspect in his consulting practice. 

  • A case study

David shares a case study of his work with a resort in Newfoundland, which he was ultimately able to help grow 300% from 2018 to 2022. This business had consistent revenue year after year, but with high costs. When David set out to help them, they looked at both finding ways to increase revenue and decrease their costs. There have been many tactics put in place since then, including bringing in a marketing team, developing new product offerings, ramping up the sales process to target corporate clients, automating the sales & booking functions, selling different products produced in-house, and finally cost control - what they're working on now.

 


 

The best way to get ahold of David is by reaching out on LinkedIn.

 

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