I write this article at the end of a gloomy year—at least according to the media. Yet, whether it's the particular area of the country I live in, the industry in which I'm employed, or just the fact that I'm much more of an optimist than a pessimist, I don't share the view of perpetual and bottomless despair I see in the headlines. There's no doubt that part of my rose-colored-glasses view is because I just don't look at my portfolio very often due to the stock market's constant peaks and valleys. Fortunately, I've got several years before I'm seriously able to contemplate that faraway word, retirement.

My upbeat state, however, doesn't mean that my employer or I have been unaffected by the economy. We've had to take a serious look at every aspect of our business and prepare for the possibility of another slow year in 2009. As we've looked toward the future, there's a theme: Get rid of "stuff" and focus on what's critical. The silver lining might be that organizations will be more efficient and streamlined as we come out of these challenging economic times—and we will come out—if they take advantage of this time to get rid of stuff. The changes we go through now to keep our margins will help the survivors thrive with increased margins in the future.

This idea of "stuff" made me realize that I have several shelves in my office. They are full of stuff. If I brought more shelves into my office, in a very short time, they would be full of stuff. Now, if my shelves got smaller, I'd have to decide what to do. I could crowd my stuff closer together and try to keep it all. Messy. Unattractive. Not very organized. Or I could figure out what is really necessary, and get rid of the rest. I'd keep the stapler (loose papers get lost), calculator (I don't do any math beyond 2 + 2 in my head), and my coffee cup warmer (I get real grumpy and inefficient with cold coffee).

Do I really need the cup of pens? No, I use only one pen. What about the business card holder—is it critical? No, it could go. Then there are the tougher choices. What about the trophy my golf team won at a company event? Ahh, it brings back fond memories, especially of my drive on the first hole in the tie breaker. Does it make me more efficient? Not at all. Now, what about those five pictures of my family? Do I love my family? Absolutely. Do I need five pictures of them to help me do my job? No. My shelf is now smaller, so I'll keep just one picture. This process is tough because I'm emotionally attached to some noncritical stuff. I admit it! So I'm also saying that removing stuff can be challenging.

This shelf example applies to business very well. Over the last few years, many companies have added shelf space and put stuff on those shelves. They added projects, hardware, software, assembly lines, trucks, employees, and so forth. Now, with declining revenue, the margins are at risk, and what's on the shelves must be examined. With that examination comes the tough decision to remove stuff from the shelf. And let's be honest, a truck or a software maintenance contract is much easier for most of us to consider removing from the shelf than, say, Sally in operations support.

We have to be realists, though, about the situation and be prepared. Even if you aren't asked to take anything off the shelf now, a good employee, manager, or owner will have thought through what is critical and what is a "get it off the shelf" opportunity. You should have a list prepared and ready. The list might not be in any particular order, but be ready to discuss the list in three ways:

• Operational impact—What will have the least to greatest impact on the company's operation? In this analysis, don't forget to include the moral meter. Although taking something off the shelf might rate very high for bottom-line savings, if it hampers your operation so much that you're unproductive, then it must rate very high on operational impact.
• Easiest items to remove—You could have a great way to save the company money, but it might take months to do what's necessary to get the stuff off the shelf. The flipside of that are the ways to save money quickly—usually by not doing something that was planned.
• Financial impact—In your financial analysis, make sure you look beyond just the first line of savings. There could be secondary or tertiary financial impacts, either positive or negative, that must be considered.

This article isn't intended to be a complete document on how to analyze your business in challenging times. Hopefully, though, it will get you to take the time to look at your shelf, prioritize, and see how you can best operate with a smaller and perhaps an even tidier shelf.

Jef Sutherland is a System iNEWS technical editor and the vice president of IS for Kampgrounds of America, Inc., in Billings, Montana. He has worked with RPG since 1987 and with various Windows development environments for more GPFs and reboots than he cares to count. Jef is the coauthor, with Bryan Meyers, of the book VisualAge for RPG by Example.