Global Recession: The Insights You Need from Harvard Business Review

 

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WHAT REALLY PREVENTS COMPANIES FROM THRIVING IN A RECESSION

by Ranjay Gulati and Mark Wiedman

Business leaders know they should “never let a good crisis go to waste,” but very few of them actually live this maxim. In a study of companies’ performance during and after the past several recessions, one of us found that 17 percent didn’t survive (because they filed for bankruptcy, were acquired, or went private), and of those that did, the vast majority—80 percent—were still struggling three years later to match their pre-recession growth.¹ Only 9 percent of surviving companies “roared out of the recession,” posting results that exceeded both their peers’ and their pre-recession performance. These firms managed a delicate dance, playing both ...