Put All Your Energy into Developing New Products

During a recession, you must put all your energy into developing new products. This is the time to devotedly work on developing products you were too busy to work on before, or to improve products which did not completely meet customer needs during better economic times. This takes the cooperation of the entire company, not only engineering and development groups, but also sales, production and marketing.

During a recession customers also have more time on their hands, and will be seeking new products. We must proactively visit customers and listen to their ideas or suggestions for new products, as well as their complaints and requests regarding existing products. We should take this information back to the company and find ways to use it when developing new products or even whole new markets.