by Rupert Hart
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Product Description
No times are more difficult for the survival of a company than recessions. They are defining moments for managers. Yet there are few books on recession strategy out there. This book aims to fill that gap. This book is different. Recession-proofing articles talk about keeping your head down and focusing on costs and cashflow. We say you cannot cut your way to greatness: this is a book for managers who have a handle on their costs and ask what now? If you want to thrive you need to storm through recessions and downturns. That is why the book is called Recession Storming. Recession Storming covers 5 main areas: understanding the business environment, retaining existing customers, maintaining margins through pricing, moving ahead with new product-offerings, and winning new customers. There are over 100 strategies in this book, pulled from over eighty companies from some 5 economic recessions. Just one idea will repay the purchase price of the book many times over.
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Average Customer Review:
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
timely advice, 2008-07-31
This is a great business book and immensely timely. I recommend it highly.
Here's what I really like about Recession Storming:
It's full of actionable ideas that marketing and business development people, as well as business owners, can use today. I opened the book at random pages and immediately saw ideas I could use in my business.
The largest chapter in the book is Pricing, and it's very valuable. As Chairman of a large consulting company, we are often under price pressure in a recession. It's the first thing our business development folks reduce but it has tremendous impact on our margins. This Pricing chapter provides them with useful ammunition and ways of resisting this margin pressure. I particularly liked the way Rupert starts with ways to utilize better positioning as a way to resist price pushback, moving onto using game-changing pricing (like leasing, pay as you go, paying for results) which take the pressure off price, investigating ways of raising prices on certain products to claw back margin, managing price reductions in ways that do not destroy your price structure, and using marginal pricing a secret weapon against competitors who do not manage their costs well.
Since my business is developing new products and service for companies, I saw a lot of relevance in the New Products chapters. Rupert's clear thinking points out the enormous importance of Recurring Revenue strategies (i.e. getting a steady stream of revenue in a downturn) and how to configure your products and services for it. I liked the way he reminded us that products and services can be equivalent, which can help you end-run your old-timer competitors. And his emphasis throughout the book of doing the things you can do today and, only then, doing the things you can do tomorrow, together with the strategies to do just that, was powerful. For example, it's easy enough to find some ancillary services to add to your product-offering. You can do that quickly. That takes precedence over refreshing the product by changing the casing, say, and before embarking on a new product redesign. There are also some good ideas on speeding up development through outsourcing, collaboration, joint ventures and, of course (!) by using consultants.
It is a very readable book. Every right-hand page has a wonderful graphic at the top which makes it easy to see where you are in the book as you work your way through the 6 main sections. The pages themselves have small paragraphs which are easy to digest with relevant titles. The examples are numerous and well-considered. After a reminder of the classic examples (e.g. Gillette razor, People Express) Rupert moves on to some very up-to-date companies such as VMWare and Digikey, and other examples from 2008, even. We can learn from companies throughout the past, and in different countries. His reading was clearly comprehensive.
Recession Storming deserves a wide readership. Frankly, I would be amazed if you could not find a dozen new ideas for your business you couldn't start on today. Even one idea would be well worth the price of this book. Good work!
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Superb Macro and Micro Assessments, 2008-07-25
As a Harvard MBA with several start-ups under my belt in good times and bad, I found this book quite refreshing. While most business books take 200 pages to present what should be an article, this one contains kernels of wisdom in nearly each paragraph, and packs a wallop in a short, tight read. It is like a refresher course in strategic marketing, from the macro-economic terrain to tactical maneuvers.
I highly recommend this book to those in large and small corporations who seek more effective ways to weather the current storm.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
"Death and Taxes, .........but they left out Recession", 2008-07-03
"Death and Taxes" are sure bets in this life, but someone left out the word "Recession" in this saying. Hart, in refreshingly plain English, tackles this condition for effective business decision making in a free market economy. With brief and relevant case studies, the author illustrates how the business animal can "bob and weave" in turbulent times. This is a must read for all of us whose lives are directly impacted by economic fluctuations. A "HIGH 5" to Rupert Hart's craftmanship in "Recession Storming".
Michael Bini
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Your own pocket survival guide, 2008-06-22
This book is a tool kit of sharp ideas born of practical experience, that will positively influence the health and bottom line of any business in times of recession.
I have run several small businesses, and I wish such wisdom had been available to me earlier. While written in an easy to read style that cuts through the normal jargon, it none the less delivers powerful solutions without having to be a Marketing Specialist. Mr Hart does that for you!
Recession Storming is a book that looks at the challenges and issues during recession, and provides practical strategies and tactics that will help businesses to survive and prosper.
The vast range of information in this book and realistic to-do lists, deliver no nonsense advice that can be implemented immediately. It will maximise your opportunities and deal with specific obstacles, objections and scepticisms businesses face in times of recession.
I found the book extremely relevant in the current climate, and delivers great value for money.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
Highly relevant, 2008-06-18
Rupert Hart's book is very timely. As he quotes John Kenneth Galbraith, 'financial memory is about 10 years. That is about the time between one episode of sophisticated stupidity, and the next.' Given that we've not had a real recession for that amount of time, a book like this provides a useful refresher on how to survive and prosper in a recession. The book itself reminds me of my MBA marketing course, covering key subjects such as the business environment, customers, pricing, new product development and new markets. It is a very useful primer, reiterating what we probably have already learned but maybe do not pay attention to day to day, but it is more relevant because it is targeted at today's business environment.
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