Strategy · 2026-08-19
Planning for a slow year without freezing
A slow year is the best time to fix what a busy year hides. Five moves that pay back when demand returns.
When orders slow, the instinct is to freeze: no hiring, no projects, no travel. It protects this quarter and quietly taxes the next three.
A slow year is the rare moment when your best people have time to fix things. The firms that come out ahead use it.
A slow year is the rare moment when your best people have time to fix things. The firms that come out ahead use it.
“A slow year is the best time to fix what a busy year hides.”
Try this
A fifteen-minute exercise
Pick the two processes that caused the most overtime last year and fix them now, while the pressure is off.
Keep training budgets; cut the meetings that exist only to report. Revisit your stock levels monthly instead of yearly.