So it seems according the news this week we are heading for a ‘double dip’ recession well into next year.  Should businesses knuckle down and be simply reactive, or should they be proactive to fight back?

 

Although country and market conditions will always have an impact on how each country deals with recessions, it seems that more frequently today what challenges one country can have a global impact. The present recession we’re trying to crawl out of agonisingly slowly won’t be the last recession. And then of course there are the ‘bailouts’ of Greece, Ireland & Portugal. Many ponder at the time of writing of the fragile state of Spain’s economy as well. All of these events are likely to plunge their country’s economy further into a recession. Of course, who’s to say what future events hold for other economies? 

 

According to a report by Sir Mervyn King, the Bank of England Governor which he released in a statement on June 24th 2011, the Euro-zone debt crisis poses the “most material and immediate threat” to the UK’s financial stability. On August 10th he said the greatest risks to Britain’s economic recovery came from the eurozone debt crisis, and that these “headwinds are becoming stronger by the day”. He goes on to say “The imbalances in the world economy are still not being properly tackled and the burden of debt is still there. This problem will take, I think, a number of years before we will find our way through it.” 

 

Following research that showed almost half of UK board directors (44%) predict that their companies would return to “pre-recession normality” and that their businesses would not fundamentally change in the next five years. The report, called Transitions said: “Many executives clearly think that there will be a return to business normality in the next two years. However, the world is changing, and there’s a need for UK businesses to reinvent themselves if they are to survive.”

 

‘The world is changing’ it tells us.  I dare say it is changing faster than some people would like. Yet in the face of the icy blast of change, are we as sales people changing with it and changing fast enough? Are we still in some ways selling in a way where time has stood still? I believe this is a period requiring immense flexibility from businesses – more so than ever before. That’s the challenge we are helping many companies to meet.

 

How is you business doing? Hanging on until things go back to normal? Looking to get ahead of the change curve? Leave a comment here or send me an email