Ideas for Tough Times
2008
Group management took a bit of back seat this month as I headed out to Chicago with other NAPL staff to attend GraphExpo. It was a great show, and as you are preparing 2009 budgets, try to put in dollars to attend the 2009 Print Show at McCormick in Chicago. As great as GraphExpo was, and it was, Print is bigger and better and only comes around every four years.
It was at GraphExpo that our Group hit the 100 member mark. I'm planning a new feature in celebration, but meanwhile LInkedIn has created some new features including an ability to upload articles for sharing among the group. If you come across an interesting article, please feel free to post it and please engage with other members who have started a discussion topic.
Of course, it's nearing year-end and everyone is deep into budgeting for 2009. Since the news isn't all that rosey, most are anticipating cut-backs, but don't go into your planning assuming doom and gloom. At GraphExpo, our chief economist Andy Paparozzi addressed the NAPL Board to give his take on the economic fronts ahead. Here's the bad news: the recession will be longer and stronger due to lots of bad decisions in the financial sectors. Here's the good news: it won't be a depression and those who plan will come out of it stronger.
Andy presented a powerful graph that has now been shared with NAPL select tier members. It shows that industry leaders went into the last recession ahead of their peers, but more importantly came out of 2003 positioned for growth that left their peers in the dust. From 2000-2008, industry leaders grew by 71.6% while the rest of the industry only grew by 8.2%. The difference was in the planning and proactive strategizing that leader companies did during the last recession. The lesson is to not hide during this storm. Digging in won't help you dig out. Instead, face the storm head on, take careful not stupid risks, wear a rain coat, and slosh threw it.
The bad weather analogies are mine, not Andy's. But, if you want to stay up with his teams prognostications go to www.NAPLBizTrends.org.
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