Plan Beyond Survival

Don't let what's urgent crowd out what's important. Focus on the short term, but manage for the long term. You need to reduce costs, but you also need to increase investment, because a recession is the time when competitive positions can switch quickly—and assets, people, and even customers can be bought on the cheap from weak players. And even if you've already done layoffs, you need to have a Plan B in case your business drops an additional 20%. If the next shock comes, you'll be able to act faster and outflank your competition.

—Hal Sirkin
Global leader of Boston Consulting Group's operations practice