Page 146 - Accelerating out of the Great Recession

GO ON THE OFFENSIVE

programs launched worldwide and the push for a green mod-
3
ernization would spur growth in the industrial sector.” He said
that Siemens fully intended to take advantage of the opportu-
nities. The majority (56 percent) of the company executives we
surveyed in September 2009 also share this view.
These opportunities are not limited to fiscal stimuli.
Companies would be well advised to look more broadly at the way
governments are shifting their industrial policies. Better still, they
should endeavor to influence the formulation of such policies.
Either way, it would be well worth the effort to scout for these
opportunities in a proactive way. And it would be well worth
remembering that the government tap will not be turned on for-
ever. As U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau stated in
1939, “We have tried spending money. We are spending more
than we have ever spent before, and it does not work. . . . I say after
eight years of this Administration we have just as much unem-
ployment as when we started, and an enormous debt to boot!” 4

■ UNLEASH ADVERTISING AND MARKETING POWER ■
Advertising and marketing budgets, classified as discretionary
spending, are usually the first to get the ax during any reces-
sion—because, even more than R&D, their immediate contri-
bution to the top line is hard to ascertain. Given this natural
reflex for most companies, advertising costs tend to fall dramat-
ically during downturns. Between 1929 and 1932, U.S. adver-
tising expenditures fell by 29 percent in real terms.
There is a similar knee-jerk reaction today. But the irony is
that because so many companies cut their spending during a
recession, the cost of advertising actually drops significantly,

■ 125 ■