While no one can predict with certainty how the global economic crisis will play out, many companies, sectors and industries will face serious challenges over the next six quarters.
The biggest question is remains, How long will this cycle persist?
If history is a guide, the answer is clearly going to come in a way most don't expect. What we can do during this cycle are a few things:
focus on strengths, this does not mean products or technologies. For me it is almost a rediscovery of relationships, strategic alliances, and through this thing called 'chemistry' we reconfigure the mousetrap. Remember mousetraps were invented not because we liked mice, but because we couldn't live with them.
Solutions restore hope, nothing else. We begin to deliver the right solutions, we once again find a firm footing for everything else.
Scott Anthony in his new book, Silver Lining, writes about how many of today's most successful companies were formed during recessions. Tough economic times simply point to previously hidden or ignored problems. Only when a deep-seated customer problem emerges, and demands a solution, then and only then is the search for novel ways to resolve it given a clear mandate.
He states that a number of game-changing products, services and business-model innovations were developed or launched in difficult and traumatic economic times.
Exactly thirteen of the 25 companies on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, as of December 2008, were formed during an economic downturn, including 3M, General Electric, Microsoft and Walt Disney.
Look for the emerging changes, and then master them.
