Through Guy’s Eyes – Recession? What recession?

It takes an enormous amount of resilience and optimism to feel positive about the economy right now.

With the announcement of a huge petrol hike following the news of our technical recession, it’s inevitable that consumers are going to start cutting down – and when they do, companies do too. Faced with less income, it makes sense to hunker down and stop all undue expenses – or does it?

Actually, no. This is the most dangerous path you can follow. It’s when times are tough that you need to invest in your company, more than ever. As turnaround specialists, we’ve seen this proved true time and again.

Let me put things in perspective by asking this: What do you do when you face challenges in your personal life? Do you withdraw and hope for the best, or do you seek help, find assistance? Exactly: you reach out. If you’re ill, you consult a doctor; if you’re experiencing a personal or emotional problem, you reach out to a coach.

Organisations function in exactly the same way as individuals: like people, they have psyches, made up of the collective thoughts and feelings of the employees they house. And, like people, they respond when you nurture them, growing and expanding if you lavish extra care on them when they need it most.

Essentially, you have a choice: you can either yield to reality and succumb to the downturn for which you have prepared for. Or you can choose to buck the trend and withstand that downturn – and, more than this, thrive.

During the past recession, we saw how those companies that had carried on with business as usual, continuing to invest in their people and in other so-called ‘unnecessary’ expenses like marketing, outperformed their reactive competitors. You can be sure that this pattern will repeat itself.

In a recession, when defeat is expected, choose a mind set of victory.

Let us show you how.