Newspaper columns blare the news daily. There is no doubt that we are
struggling through a worldwide economic and financial crisis of a
magnitude not witnessed since the Great Depression.
In this environment, fraught with danger, no company can afford to take
a wait-and-see attitude. One hesitation or misstep can result in the
rapid demise of a once stalwart enterprise. Even small miscalculations
can topple mighty empires; consider the U.S. auto industry, for example.
The severity of the crisis demands that your company understand its
causes, diagnose carefully, implement decisively and monitor constantly.
However, the crisis also creates chances for companies that learn to
assess risk, recognize opportunity and take action quickly. This book is
an antidote to the chorus of doom-and-gloom, a manual for business
leaders and employees who are ready to fight. In Beat the Crisis,
international strategy guru, Hermann Simon, offers 33 practical actions
that any company can take immediately. Organized into broad
categories-"Changing Customer Needs," "Sales and the Sales Force,"
"Managing Offers and Prices" and "Services"-Simon shows companies how to
focus on the areas where emphatic action can have quick and maximum
impact on corporate performance. Drawing from dozens of successful cases
around the world, Simon helps readers learn to read the market signals,
develop quick solutions, and stay a step ahead of their competitors,
while avoiding the pitfalls looming in the crisis. A concluding chapter
looks beyond the crisis and considers the longer-term socio-political
and business consequences, in which Simon foresees a new era of
restraint.
