Keep Your Company Strong in a Slow Market

(MoneyWatch) 

With a stock market that's been volatile for months,
job growth figures slowing to a standstill, and a rising unemployment rate,
recession anxieties are understandably rattling the corporate sector. The bad
news: history repeats itself. The good news: history also provides today's
managers with valuable lessons in how companies have weathered past economic
downturns. Here's a package of articles that offer financial
strategies and research about how to best position your firm in a slow market.

How Banks Pulled Through the 2001 Recession

Source: Federal Reserve Bank of New York

href="http://jobfunctions.bnet.com/whitepaper.aspx?&q=recession&docid=111059">

Financial institutions came through the 2001 recession in a
much stronger position than they did during the downturn 10 years earlier. This
article offers a look into how much of their success stemmed from skill on the
part of managers and how much came from simple luck.

Recession Strategy: Reduce Working Capital Without Punishing Customers

Source: CFO Magazine

href="http://jobfunctions.bnet.com/whitepaper.aspx?&q=recession&docid=55984">

A recession can bring out the best and the worst in
corporate finance. The worst has been splattered across newspaper front pages.
Some of the best is happening in back offices, where companies continue to find
ways to mine working capital to increase cash flow. Take a look at this article
to learn how companies like Palm and Plexus handle their financials and their
customers during a slow economy.

Using Corporate Risk to Determine a Recession’s Severity

Source: International Monetary Fund

href="http://jobfunctions.bnet.com/whitepaper.aspx?&q=recession&docid=74981">

Economists have long recognized that the private sector’s
financial conditions have a powerful effect on the macroeconomy. Now with the rapid
accumulation of corporate debt, a sudden economic shock would, in fact, not be
very shocking. This paper shows how the IMF constructs its measure of corporate
vulnerability and, in turn, its predictions for how low a downturn will go.

When Good Management Shines

Source: Montgomery Research

href="http://jobfunctions.bnet.com/whitepaper.aspx?&q=recession&docid=138290">

According to conventional wisdom, a recession is when exceptional
companies prove their value. Accenture Institute studied 850 of the largest
companies in the United States and how they fared during the 1990–1991
recession. Here’s how the most successful came out on top by pursuing
a new brand of back-to-basics contrarianism.

Recession Spending: Why Ad Cutbacks Don’t Always Make Sense

Source: B2Badvertising.org

href="http://jobfunctions.bnet.com/whitepaper.aspx?&q=recession&docid=63281">

Should you change your marketing strategy during uncertain
times? All too often management looks at advertising solely as an expense,
rather than a long-term investment. This article explains why companies that
continue to pursue an aggressive marketing strategy during a recession actually
recover faster than the competitors who decide to slash budgets.