Economic recessions are unavoidable. The best self defending act that companies can adopt during times of recession is to execute balancing ways to minimize the hazards due to a recession. Many companies don’t survive recession, many go bankrupt, and some get acquired. And the lists of companies which overcome the recession without getting hands burnt are quite a few.

How to survive an economic recession?
The latest economic recession proved the very fact that often companies who cut costs faster and deeper than rivals don’t necessarily flourish. Similarly companies who invest heavily during the recession to counter attack the recession may also not survive healthy.

This fact pops up the basic question on who are the survivors of economic recession and the strategies adopted to address the recession. Companies who know how to balance their spending and investments are surely the winners of any economic recession. Cutting costs is mandatory during recession to avoid a massive financial collapse. At the same time to ensure healthy operations during post recession period, companies may be required to invest wisely too.

All the companies need not follow the same strategies to fight recession. The basic strategies adopted may either prevention based on promotion based depending on the operational style, market conditions etc. Some survivors of recession succeed because they adopt a preventive strategy where defensive moves are made and are more concerned than their rivals to avoid losses and minimize risks. The other side of the coin is those companies which invest more in offensive moves than defensive ones. The real survivors of any economic recession who reap the maximum benefits are those companies who balance well both the strategies.

Defend or Attack
The decision to defend or attack back the recession depends on the nature of the operation of the company, the competitors and the future business prospects. During the last economic recession, electronic gadgets giant Sony focused on the prevention based approach. As a part of the strategy the Japanese giant cut its work force, R&D expenditures and capital expenditures by a considerable amount. Meanwhile companies like HP had adopted to fight back by increasing their R&D and acquiring many companies. The selected strategy should be aimed at minimizing the hazards and maximizing the benefits in business.