How to Get Rich During this Recession

Recessions always tell us something.  This one is telling us that the world economy is changing and we are not ready. 

While disruptive, recessions often have a silver lining.  The upside to this slow down is that we get a needed breather to rethink and retool for the coming Jump Point economy.  In the transition period leading up to the 2011 inflection year, the way forward is less about what to do, more about what to change.  Want to get a leg up on the next economic boom?  Here are some major thematics from Jump Point: How Network Culture is Revolutionizing Business:

• The convergence of personal computing and communications has created a worldwide network that allows people to connect directly to each other without middlemen, brokers or arbiters between them.  This is a lousy time to be a middleman, broker, or arbiter.

• Consumers, overwhelmed by information overload, struggle to reconcile the many competing claims for their attention in daily life. This is a bad time to be an attention-stealing, interruption advertiser.

• People don’t want anyone dictating when they do something, buy something, or watch something. This is an unfortunate time to be in an inflexible or time-bound business.

• People don’t want restrictions on how they use, enjoy, manipulate, store or share their property. Trying to command and control information rights is a losing proposition.

• Consumers are acutely aware of their power to change the equations, flip the ratios and obliterate the old market rules. Provide mechanisms for customer influence and expression . . . or go home.

• People don’t trust their governments, large corporations or political parties; they have an inherent trust in each other and in authenticity.  This is a dangerous time to be untrustworthy or shifty or phony –   especially if you are a large, established institution.

We are not in a business-as-usual recession.  This is the trembler before the tsunami.  You won't succeed by continuing to do after the recession what you did before it.  Use this period to rethink your business model, refine your value proposition, rework your go-to-market strategy, and get ready for the Jump Point and beyond. 

Coming up, we will look at some of the new strategies companies are adopting to win during and after this recession.

Comments

[Josh Neumann]

Informative post, but you left out the most obvious way to get rich-buy quality stocks at discount prices, ala Warren Buffet. When all the other panicky investors are getting out, he's getting in and making a killing.

[hockref]

you need a business or job that creates cash before you can have enough cash to buy stocks in amount that will get you to rich.

[hockref]

Grammar skills help too. I meant amounts.