This article is from THE SMART MANAGER Jan-Feb 09 Issue....Article by Aditya dev sood.

The world has turned upside down and may take time righting itself. Rather tha dreaming about remaking the world, many creative consultancies now have to think about making their next payroll. When growth goes negative, design begins to look like a luxury and budgets are frozen.

Here are a few pointers to help you make the best of a temporary recession:

Create a burn rate optimization tool :
Make a six month survival plan. Establish that you can and will still be in business in six months time by cutting spending and delaying investments. Within that horizon you will have found ways to understand and adapt to new market conditions and flourish again.

Enter the crisis:
It may be a management chiche that in Chinese, crisis = Danger + Opportunity, but it is true nonetheless that in a crisis people change everyday ways of thinking and become open to new options and ways of doing things. The new can more easily become the familiar, more so in a naturally creative company.

Argue from efficiency:
there are two angles. First, out sourcing works because it leads to business efficiencies. Creative consultancies represent a form of outsourcing, though they are not conventionally seen that way. Show your clients exactly how you are a more direct path to innovation than their internal team. Remind them that you have a wider breadth of expertise across a range of industries; that you are in tune with current design trends; that you have therefore accumulated expertise and specialization, while their internal team knows only how to deal with their particular widget. Second, if a client sees design can help them succeed in the market by creating products that their consumers actually prefer. Design is the path out of stagnation toward innovation and new market opportunities.

Thrive through adversity:
creative people know better than most that the mind focuses better as the deadline draws near. Share the fear with you larger team, and allow the group to consider new market needs they can fulfill, ones they might have earlier thought were too infra-dig or beneath their caliber

Build systems and establish processes:
The slack you're enjoying now is actually haven-sent, given how busy you've been over the last decade. Figure out how to improve internal processes so that the company moves like greased lightning when things finally pick up.

Live each day (as if it were your last):
This is hard for any team or person to get right, but most especially for young, lateral-thinking minds, pushing continuously into the future. Even as you pedal harder every hour of your eight hour day, step back and step out during after hours. Spend time with family and take good care of yourself. An economic slowdown is a chance to take a breather, to reconsider your priorities and the creative directions your company should take.