The construction of new office complexes, corporate parks, and nuclear power plants has ground to a halt. Each year as many new businesses that are established close their doors. A substantial number of our nation's businesses are marginal enterprises yielding meager profits year after year. Many of them barely break even, and even minor errors in management judgment can push these firms into the red. Profit margins for most enterprises fluctuate between 2 percent and 4 percent of net sales.
Many firms do much worse.
To be successful and survive, management must be able to resolve these challenges in tandem. Unfortunately, when an enterprise does well financially its management lacks the motivation to assess its status during that profitable period. Business executives frequently wait until troubled times or a crisis before seeking outside help to determine company strengths and opportunities for improvement. Whenever this happens, businesses may find themselves paying exorbitant amounts of money for improvements when they least can afford it. MDI recommends that businesses be pro-active and preventive in their business planning strategy.