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STEP TWO: Hands Off: Automating Reconciliation Can Dramatically Lower Costs | STEP ONE: The 70 Percent Solution: Cut Costs Upfront and As You Go, With Cloud Computing | Seven-Step Survival Guide: How to Thrive in Tough Times | STEP THREE: Spend Green, Go Green, Save Green | STEP FOUR: Time is Money. Make Millions From Every Millisecond |
Seven-Step Survival Guide: How to Thrive in Tough Times
July 6, 2009
Are you ready to adapt?
The worst of the world's banking, securities and credit crises may be past. The outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas reported July 1 that financial industries layoffs were down 52 percent from a year ago. In the first half of this year, 40,911 jobs were cut. In the first half of last year, 85,258 positions were axed.
And while stocks are still down sharply from a year ago, the Standard & Poor's 500 from April to June had its best quarter in a decade, gaining 15 percent. But markets were still mixed for the first half: Dow, off 3.8%, S&P 500 and Russell 2000 each up 1.8%.
Which means that improving operations and saving money is now every bit as important as making money on smart trading strategies. That was the bottom line that came out of the Technology Management Conference & Exhibit held June 23-25 at the Hilton New York by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.
Whether its moving back office functions or peak time activity into the unseen "cloud" of computing services at farms of servers you don't own or playing cable companies off phone companies to get lower communication costs on your data traffic, adaptability is in. And the payoff matters.
Here a team of Securities Industry News reporters, coordinated by Special Reports Editor Carol E. Curtis, takes a detailed look at seven steps you can take to cut expenses, boost productivity and innovate in your use of technology so your firm can thrive for as long as tough times persist.
