Industrial Manufacturing News

This arsenal of information is an invaluable antidote against the increasingly troublesome reports delivered daily with news stories lamenting the lagging economy here in the US and abroad. Economic forecasters and analysts are beginning to give in to recession language, with 51% of respondents to a recent poll conducted by the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) indicating they believe a stalled economy is where we may be headed, and Singapore's GIC (The Government of Singapore Investment Corp), one of the biggest sovereign wealth funds, warned on Monday the world could be facing its worst recession in 30 years and that financial markets will be highly volatile. As reported in The Economic Times, GIC Deputy Chairman Tony Tan said, "The financial contagion has now spread beyond US shores, increasing the likelihood of a global financial crisis and recession." He also opined that, "We could be facing a recession which is longer, deeper and wider than any recession we have encountered in the last 30 years."

With advance strategic planning and careful preparation, businesses can help lessen the impact of a slowdown and perhaps even identify new opportunities in the midst of economic turmoil. A company's strategic plan is the "game plan" management has for positioning the company, competing successfully, satisfying customers and achieving good business performance. Basic strategic planning tends to address the incidents of the day, but scenario planning and continuity planning, which are both subsets of strategic planning, should also be included in the planning process. Scenario planning is a way of simplifying a complex future by providing the opportunity to ask the "what if" questions and to rehearse responses while continuity planning lays out the details for ensuring a business doesn't stop running if a particular scenario happens. All three subjects are addressed along with expert advice in the new Ultimate Recession Planning Toolkit.

M3 Planning is a strategic planning firm that works with growth-oriented organizations to develop and execute their strategic plans and has established itself as a source for everything related to strategic planning. In addition to their award-winning strategic planning software, the company is also a resource for other strategic planning tools, books, articles, workshops, and facilitations.