When the recession set in late last year, I said to myself, “Oh, we’ll be fine. We have several major client engagements under way, and our clients aren’t pulling the plug on us yet.” Then in January, we signed a contract for another significant organizational change management effort, so I asked myself, “What’s everyone else doing wrong? We’re fine!” That’s when our largest clients reduced our level of support and in some cases didn’t even renew our contracts demonstrating to me exactly what this recession was all about. And that’s when I realized just why this was being called the worst global economic crisis since the invention of the telephone almost 140 years ago.
So what does this mean as we quickly approach year-end? NOTHING! It just means I spent a lot of time (and still do) listening to CNBC business updates and that we learned to run our business more efficiently this year getting more done with less. Those can always be beneficial exercises though. What would hurt us would be continuing to believe that we are stuck in a recession and can’t do anything about it. Well guess what… THE RECESSION IS OVER!
After conducting some informal market research the past few months, we developed the following Top 10 List of reasons why the recession is really over:
10. In May, Forbes states that indicators point to a fast-approaching end to the recession (May ’09)
9. Newsweek announces the “Great Recession” is over after home sales rise for 3 straight months – a 1st since 2004 (Aug ’09)
8. Leading economist Alan Beaulieu of Institute for Trend Research says that we are at the beginning of an economic up-cycle (Sept ’09)
7. Partner at a leading advertising agency reports that his client – a major discount retailer – hasn’t spent this much money on Advertising in years (Sept ’09)
6. Associated Press captures senior economist saying the recession is over even though there will be no tangible evidence of the recovery until the middle of next year (Sept ’09)
5. Washington Post reports that the economy actually grew by 3.5% this summer (Oct ’09)
4. Corporate attorney at one of the world’s largest law firms says, “We’ve never been busier.” And that’s not just the bankruptcy guys! (Oct ’09)
3. CEO of a national consulting firm also says he’s seeing signs that clients are buying consulting services again – and consulting is typically the 1st to go and last to come back from a down economy… (Oct ’09)
2. CNBC reports that, while unemployment has risen over 10%, companies are hiring a greater number of temporary workers (Nov ’09)
And the #1 reason why the recession is really over…
1. Because I said so! Do you need a better reason than that?
If you believe in self-fulfilling prophecies like I do, you better pull your head out of the recession NOW or you will undoubtedly experience many more bleak and dreary days on the horizon… It’s time to realize that the recession will be over just as soon as you say it’s over, so do something decisive and step into the recovery. For specific suggestions on what to do, check out this article we wrote earlier in the year to help business leaders renew their organizations and produce better business results – Strategic Organization Renewalsm: Producing Better Business Results TODAY While Renewing Your Organization for Tomorrow
