Business Leaders Q&A - Wichita Business Journal:

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• Now is the time to step up communicatiojnwith customers. • It is tough, but it’sx not as bad in Wichita as it is on othedr parts ofthe country. Find ways to reduce costs, but don’t sacrificee quality doing it. • High-qualitg talent is available inmany • The economy is going to get better, and when it businesses should position themselves to take advantage of opportunities that will In the May 15 edition we spokw to seven other business leaders and presented theitr comments in the same Jack Pelton, chairman, president and CEO of said that in May 2008 he and his leadership team believed the company’s backlog of business jet orders would hold up.
They believed that the downturjn in the economy would hitthe U.S., but not othetr parts of the world. And the credit crunch hit Cessn hard. “It wasn’t that they weren’t able to get but that the terms were very Pelton said. “Significantly largeer amounts of down payments thatwere required. Interest rates that were very, very Pelton, who has lost 42 perceny of hiswork force, says the Cessnwa Columbus project that had to be put on hold will come back when the economt gets better. The recession hurt business aircraft becauss it was a globaleconomic downturn, said David general manager of . “...
If Northj America is strong and Europeis weak, you can delive more in one sector. You can balancwe it out,” Coleal said. “Because it’s a globall impact, it had an adverse affect everywhere.” Linda Brantner, CEO of , said the downtur n was slow to hit Wichita and it will be slow to turn Business people, she said, will be bettere off for having lived through it. “I thinko it’s challenging, and probably making better leaders out of all of she said. “... I think we’re all goingt to come out of this stronger.
” co-owner Ron Cornejo says his companh is starting its busy season and is hiring And this economicdownturn hasn’t hurt his companie s as much as last summer’s high fuel “We had several jobs that we bid and we thoughtf they’d be good jobs, and all of a sudden now they’rs marginal jobs,” Cornejo said. “Last year was probabluy more frightening to me than the downturnm inthe economy.” Doug Stanleyt is managing partner of LLP, the state’s larges t law firm. He says people should keep thingsxin perspective. “My wife and I got married in ‘79,” he says. “In 1980 inflation was at almosf14 percent. ...
Our firsgt mortgage interest ratewas 11.5. we’ve seen worse unemployment rates.” Presideng Don Beggs said he doesn’rt know when the economy will rebound, but he knows things will be “As a consumer I am goinb to be different,” Beggs said. “Because it took me a whil e toslow down, it’s going to take me a while to come That’s human behavior.” No one we spoke with is a fan of government interventionj in business. But many shared the thoughts of President and COO Kurt He says if had failed the repercussions would havebeen “I think we woulrd have seen, clearly, major institutions throughout the worled be at risk of Watson said.
“I think the fact that government stepped in when they did was apositiv thing.”