Recessions

“They gave us a whole can of soda” was how my octogenarian mother-in-law explained a recent experience when her plane was kept on the ground an extra hour for de-icing. Monica was not complaining; she was framing the delay as a positive. This veteran traveler knows that delays are inevitable. My mother-in-law’s attitude might serve […]

There are many reasons for not working with jerks, as Bob Sutton has pointed out in his memorably-titled book The No Asshole Rule. But I think I’ve discovered another reason for not having them in your organization’s employ: they often make bad decisions. While all jerks don’t always make bad decisions, and non-jerks occasionally decide […]

Last week we held our Annual Meeting for my firm, Cue Ball, and as part of it we gathered our investor members for a stimulating dinner discussion with...

Research on the Great Recession found that aggressive companies outperformed those that hunkered down.

An entire generation’s prosperity vanishing, food stamp use exploding. Welcome to the jobless future. This month’s jobs numbers drive home the point. The unemployment rate fell at the fastest rate for years — great news, right? Wrong. The lion’s share of the gains came from (wait for it) “temporary help services.” See what just happened? […]

Most of us can't do a darn thing to change what is happening on Wall Street or in the financial markets around the world. We are at the mercy of macro-economic...

During the recession, companies like Procter & Gamble, Hyundai, and Best Buy used adaptive pricing strategies, such as introducing lower-priced versions...

This blog post is part of the HBR Online Forum The Future of Retail. Last year on Black Friday, I dropped by a local Staples store in Watertown, Massachusetts, to pick up a few office supplies. Surprised at the 40% off sale on many items, I ended up leaving with a lot of office supplies […]

It’s become the mantra of the moment: “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.” Leaders everywhere are struggling to make sense of the worldwide economic crisis, to learn lessons that will guide them and their companies going forward. My worry is that too many leaders are learning the wrong lessons — they are becoming […]

Finance has always been dominated by men and driven by a testosterone-enhanced culture. If women had been running our banks, might we have avoided the sub-prime mess and the resulting economic meltdown? Halla Tomasdottir, a prominent Icelandic financier, answers yes. In a recent BBC interview she shared her outrage at the wild risks male bankers […]

In every recession marketers find themselves in poorly charted waters because no two downturns are exactly alike. However, in studying the marketing successes and failures of dozens of companies as they’ve navigated recessions from the 1970s onward, we’ve identified patterns in consumers’ behavior and firms’ strategies that either propel or undermine performance. Companies need to […]

You're grabbing a coffee in the break room when your boss's boss walks in. You're surprised that she seems to recognize you. Did you make an impression...

Win, my mountain biking partner, and I looked down the ten-foot drop. “Should be fun,” he said as we backed away from the edge and climbed up the hill to get some runway. I wasn’t so sure. He climbed on his bike, pedaled to get a little speed, and took the plunge, effortlessly gliding over […]

A close look at consumer trends, monetary policy, and other trends gives reason for optimism — not pessimism.

The 2008 recession is an economic firestorm unlike anything the country has seen since the Great Depression. But 2009 is shaping up to be a trigger for an unprecedented surge of innovation that may be one of the most important turning points in the last 100 years. While things are undoubtedly more difficult these days, […]

Personal finance expert Alisa Barcan answers our questions.

It was great to be in retailing during the past 15 years. Inflated home values, freely available credit, and low interest rates fueled unprecedented levels of consumer spending. Retailers responded by aggressively adding new stores, launching new concepts, building an online presence, and expanding internationally. While the U.S. economy grew 5% annually from 1996 to […]

If you're an older manager who's been laid off (or is under threat), the future probably looks pretty bleak. Do you take a job at Walmart or work part...

Although the recession has meant a rise in some threats to corporate security and a fall in others, security directors are seeing their budgets cut without...

There’s an old story about two shoe salesmen whose company sends them to a remote village in Africa. Upon arrival, one sends home a message saying, “No one here wears shoes; will return shortly.” The other salesman sends this message: “No one here wears shoes; send inventory!” The point of the story, of course, is […]