The good, the bad and the recession

Paradoxically, now is probably the time to be positive about the slowdown or recession we may or may not be moving into.

One thing that already stands out is the early response of the marketing industry to the slowdown signals. Looking back at previous recessions, it is hard to recall a decisive response occurring before the economic indicators had gone well into reverse.

But this year we’ve already seen significant staff reductions in many businesses, and not just Internet ones. From a business point of view, this can only be encouraging.

Mature managers know that they have to deal with good and bad times and the biggest mistake is to treat them the same. It may be, therefore, that the industry can get through the current turbulence with a combination of staff reductions and effective mergers (to create economic benefits), which allow businesses to continue to develop, not fall into the negative loop induced by losing money and then cutting costs.

There certainly seems to have been a good deal of learning from the recession of the early Nineties, though early reactions are only half the equation, of course.

The other half is the flight to quality: “good guys win in a recession”. And who would doubt that preserving quality is the ultimate imperative?

Tony Bond

Senior consultant

Results Business Consulting

London W1