Silver Linings

When I wrote about "managing hard times" two months ago, I did not actually imagine that the world would have to live through such a hard time - of basically a collapse of the whole Anglo-Saxon system of finance. Now we are all seriously worrying about how bad world economies will be affected, how long the downturn will last, and how individual companies and households can survive the hardship which is almost surely to hit home in one way or another.

It is indeed hard to remain upbeat in this precarious condition of living, as psychologically exacerbated by all the gloomy headlines on a daily basis. What can an ordinary person do other than feeling along with the doom, except of course generally switching to the conservation mode in spending. But a collective sense of gloom will surely make things worse, just like a bank run, making an economic recession a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Never mind socialism, it helps now that the world governments are nationalizing banks to sustain credit liquidity and hopefully taking more of the Keynesian approach to spend their economies out of any severe economic recession. For companies which manage to secure bank credits or cash to keep business and operations running, it is important to find creative ways to stimulate customer demand. Pricing will no doubt have a particularly key role to play in creating value for consumers.

As for individuals worrying about tomorrow's prospects, it may help somewhat to deliberately search for good news rather than spend all time reading the bad ones. This was what I tried to do (whilst in the process of re-doing the staff cost budget for my office in face of the current economic challenges). Living in Indonesia, I was delighted to spot at least one silver lining.