Surviving and Thriving in Economic Turmoil: Taking a Lesson From High Performing Companies

Few companies have remained untouched by the recession and even now, amid signs of recovery, caution reigns. While many companies did whatever it took to survive – reducing head count, freezing salaries, suspending contributions to retirement plans, eliminating training programmes – a number of organisations weathered the crisis particularly well, demonstrating resilience and maintaining consistently above-average performance. These were high-performing companies that went into the crisis in a position of financial and/or operational strength – and held fast to those strengths even through the worst of the downturn. Certainly, these companies took prudent steps to control costs, but they also viewed the recession as an opportunity to enhance a range of business-critical processes, from customer relations to internal communication.