Book Review: Beat The 2008 Recession

Consultant, professor, author, and my compadre in management blogging Nicholas Bate takes the good advice he gives.

What that means is the man is extremely productive. He completes books in the time it takes the rest of us to finish our second drafts. Adding to our guilt, he does so with a demanding travel schedule that takes him far from his native Britain. [I have visions of him writing them in airports or while sipping gin as the sun sets in some exotic clime. Aargh.]

His latest, Beat The 2008 Recession: A Blueprint for Business Survival, is a brief, creative, and to the point collection of 176 potential ways to spur your business. [The book is currently available at Amazon UK.]

The book abounds with key messages used to sum up certain sections; handy reminders such as "Simply discounting is not selling nor is it negotiation" and "A complex decision is not a decision until you have created a plan and know the critical path." His advice to keep strategic, tactical, and weekly plans nearby for frequent review so they can thwart the temptation to get off track during a crisis is especially timely.


In short, this is a workshop in a book. It is a direct way to jar and refresh your thinking. You will have heard a number of the points before but the space Bate provides for your action plan declares that knowledge without action is not all that effective.

I kept muttering, "I know that. Why haven't I been doing that?"