Which companies will survive the downturn?

I find it interesting that my first blog entry would be about marketing in a downturn economy. After all, as we have celebrated our 5 year anniversary this year, I’ve often thought back on the economy in which Kick-Start Marketing was created in 2003. We – the global market – were just emerging from a slump from the tech bust in the early 2000’s. Fresh out of business school, many of my colleagues and friends struggled to find jobs, landing safely in interesting, thriving companies a year or so later.

The bottomline is that we all survived that downturn, and we’ll all survive this one if for nothing else but the spirit to succeed.

In this month’s Harvard Business Review, Cisco’s CEO of 14 years, John Chambers has seen it all in his tenure, but as the article points out, he chooses to focus on identifying and managing “market transitions and disruptions.” We are smack dab in the middle of a transition, to put it mildly.

The lesson here for me is that a market downturn is an opportunity to managing the situation, see it for what it is, and navigating it. When others are circling the wagons, the company to survive will be the one that understands it’s not a matter of “if” but “when.”

So if you are worried about your business in this current economy, it’s ok. But take that concern and turn it into action. Whatever you do, maintain your brand, maintain your marketing efforts, and seek to identify where the water is taking you; then embrace it.