Page 20 - Accelerating out of the Great Recession

INTRODUCTION

6. Developing new models for business leadership.
7. Helping the management team to think ambitiously
about growth by looking beyond today’s tough economic
environment.

There is much to worry about. But there are solutions to the
problems.

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History is written by the victors, as Winston Churchill famously
observed. So any research that identifies typical characteristics of
the outperformers from long-past recessions is prone to survivor
bias. Other companies may well have displayed the same char-
acteristic, followed the same strategies—and failed.
So we do not suggest that slavish application of lessons from
the past will guarantee success today. But, as we describe pri-
marily in Chapters 4 and 5—but also through Chapter 3’s story
of the auto companies during the Great Depression—the les-
sons resonate powerfully over the years. They show clearly that
well-managed companies can prosper in tough times and that
when the upswing comes, these companies can accelerate faster
than the competition and increase their lead.
This line of thought reminds us of another observation from
Churchill: “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity;
an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”
In this book, our goal is to help you to understand the mag-
nitude and enduring nature of the changes that have taken place
and to offer insights and practical suggestions for seizing the
opportunities that will present themselves in the aftermath of
the Great Recession.

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