Book Review: Accelerating Out of the Great Recession

One person's disaster is another person's opportunity and when you have whole economies crashing - well, that just multiplies the opportunities.

I simplify. Greatly. But the whole point of David Rhodes and Daniel Stelter's book Accelerating Out of the Great Recession is that well-managed companies can use these troubled economic times to vault ahead of their "slow-to-react or indecisive competitors".

And what is a well-managed company? One that acts quickly to apply the right business growth strategies, business growth strategies that have worked to keep companies not only surviving but thriving in similar economic circumstances in the past (such as the Great Depression).

In the first section of Accelerating Out of the Great Recession, David Rhodes and Daniel Stelter do a masterful job of analyzing the current economic situation. Because of the global meltdown, we are entering/in a long period of slow growth, which creates a set of what they call "new realities" for business.

These new realities include a return of intervenist government, increased protectionism, increased regulation, and consumers that are more conservative and value-conscious.

No rocket science there. But the authors make a very convincing case that savvy businesses can operate within these new realties to seize the opportunities that exist and profit accordingly.

Rhodes and Stelter explain how in the second part of the book, presenting business growth strategies businesses can use to thrive and vault ahead of their competitors. Defensively, they argue businesses must protect financial fundamentals, protect business fundamentals and protect revenue. Offensively, they need to:

1. focus on innovation
2. capitalize on changes in the external environment
3. Unleash marketing and advertising power
4. take the fight to your competitors.

What gives Accelerating Out of the Great Recession the competitive edge over other how-your-business-can-succeed books is the examples Rhodes and Stelter use to buttress their argument. The authors have mined the histories of well-known companies to illustrate each of the business growth strategies they present and the individual case studies are fascinating reading.

Proctor and Gamble and the birth of the soap opera. GM and the creation of a "car for every purse and purpose" during the Great Depression. Seven-Eleven and its cobranding campaign in Japan. There are lessons to be learned from all of them, but they're also just plain entertaining.

My one complaint about Accelerating Out of the Great Recession is that there is no mention of small business. I don’t know if the authors are assuming that the same business growth strategies fit all and therefore, small business needs no special mention or if they feel that small business is outside the scope of their book.

But I think that small business and big business are very different animals and it's too big of a stretch to assume that the business growth strategies that let GM out produce Ford in the thirties are directly applicable to small businesses. I would have liked to see an additional chapter discussing how these business growth strategies could be applied to small businesses.

Accelerating Out of the Great Recession is an entertaining, impressively-researched read. While the authors' advice for how businesses can "outperform today to create and sustain an advantage over your competitors for the long haul" is aimed at large and medium-sized businesses, there are valuable business growth strategies here that small businesses could apply.