BUSINESSWEEK: MAKE SMARTER MARKETING BETS IN 2010
BusinessWeek’s Steve McKee presents different strategies to respond to three different possible economic climates in 2010. Prepare yourself and your company for one of these possibilities.
BusinessWeek Excerpt:
Things have been going so poorly for so long that any of us could be forgiven for thinking recession is the new normal. The economy has been in decline for 22 months, and as we head into 2010 many pundits assume things are going to continue as they are—or maybe get even worse. Others figure 2010 can’t be anything but better than 2009 and recommend business leaders plan accordingly.
Who’s right? Nobody knows. All we do know is that while things are still bad now, sooner or later lasting economic recovery will come. Whether that’s “sooner” or “later” is anybody’s guess, and I tend to be one to take what analysts and economists say with a grain of salt (they don’t have a terrific track record).
With that in mind, as you’re knee-deep in 2010 planning I encourage you to hedge your bets and consider a variety of possible scenarios. That way, you can be prepared for just about anything.
You may think scenario planning is something only the biggest corporations can afford. To be sure, small companies don’t have a fleet of analysts on whom they can call, but that doesn’t mean you can’t evaluate the possibilities and make at least general plans for a variety of future scenarios. The worst thing you can do is assume past circumstances—good or bad—are predictors of future events.