This month, the stock market officially tipped into a bear market, while inflation continues putting consumers worldwide through the wringer. Businesses in turn are looking to further tighten their belts and pare down their costs, no matter how frugal they were already.
In May, a survey of more than 180 CFOs and senior finance leaders found that while many companies are currently passing on inflationary costs to customers, they don’t expect that will last through the fourth quarter. The data suggests that executives expect to cut their own costs in the back half of the year, as well as explore altering their product offerings.
Nearly one-quarter of those surveyed said automation will play a big role in their efforts to combat inflation through the fourth quarter. Proponents call for leaning into “digital deflation” — as one expert put it, “investing in technology to permanently reduce the cost of doing business.”
Automation doesn’t simply mean buying new software or offloading processes onto an AI. It’s finding ways to consolidate employee duties that free up your human workers to do the creative and interactive work that we’re best suited for. This might mean a solution as low-tech as taking a new look at your reporting hierarchies to pare down a paperwork burden, or investing in some database management programs to better organize your accounts.
At SBF we take a consultative approach to our work, which can involve offering advice and tips for dealing with higher costs in a client’s business. We’d be happy to help you look for ways to be leaner and more efficient as you look to grow your company profitably.