That is because the economic situation in our country today is as bad as any time since the great depression of the 1930’s. This recession has been considerably longer and deeper than any in recent times, and unlike in the past the outlook for recovery is not too bright. So after facing two to three years of difficult times, depending on the industry, we may have two to three more to deal with.

Times like these call for the CEOs to make major decisions in just about every area of their business. With less business to go around, competition is fierce. What do you do to maintain your customers and revenue? Do you increase your sales team and effort? Drop your price to meet your competition or customer’s demand? Should you do both?

You are definitely going to need to reduce your costs. Most likely you are going to lose revenue or lower your price, both will eat into your profit. So to stay viable what are you going to do? There are so many options: optimize your processes, improve your yields, layoff employees, cut benefits and wages, renegotiate your lease, etc.

How do you decide what changes to make and what order and sequence to make them? For you definitely have to make some changes to survive and position yourself for better times.

No one else in your company feels the pressure or has the financial risk that you do. It is also unlikely they have any more experience than you concerning what to do. They will be biased toward Status Quo; will look for reasons why cuts shouldn’t be made. Are you up to and prepared to make many of these difficult decisions yourself?