Abundant Opportunities in the Recession of 2008 - 2009

Last week, I shared the six reasons why I believe the 2008-2009 recession will be longer and deeper than any of us hope, than the government is now publicly stating, and most economists are currently predicting.

Prophet of gloom? Hardly!

I believe that there are abundant opportunities to prosper, both financially and developmentally, during this recession. Planning how to do so must begin with a realistic assessment of the situation, hence the week-long series devoted to a situational assessment.

The challenge, for all of us, is that the actions that brought us success over the last decade are unlikely to bring us success in a radically different situation.

Financially, I believe prosperity will come to those who are involved with businesses that

1) provide goods or services that are specifically tailored to the downturn, or

2) provide other goods or services in a manner such that they are materially different than that provided by competitors.

Examples of the former would be businesses that deal with foreclosed homes, repossessed autos, defaulted loans, etc. etc.

Examples of the latter would be businesses that provide customers or clients with exceptional value. Consider, for example, the casual dining restaurant sector which is having extreme difficulties. Well, tonight I ate at an “all you can eat” salad/pasta bar that was jam packed. Literally, there was a five minute wait to be shown to your seat…on a Sunday evening, no less. For comparison sake, after dinner, I walked next door to one of the big name casual dining traditional restaurants and it had only a handful of customers. Ouch!

In the last decade, business success was much easier than it is likely to be in the next two to five years. This downturn will test the skills of all owners and managers. In a growing market, differentiation is important. In a declining market, meaningful differentiation is absolutely imperative.

Those owners and managers who can break away from past success patterns and plan and implement strategies attuned to today’s environment will do well. Perhaps not as well as in recent years, but still well.

The greatest challenge will be those whose business model is difficult to change quickly because of the nature of their industry. Executives in those industries will be severely tested.

Up Next: Over the coming week, I will be sharing specific strategies for tuning your business to win in this new environment. Tomorrow, I will address taking business from your competitors in a downturn.