Posts Tagged ‘businesses’

McKinsey Economic Conditions Snapshot – Notable Aspects

Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011

Recently McKinsey released their “Economic Conditions Snapshot, June 2011″

As stated in the survey:

Over the past three months, executives around the world have grown more pessimistic about their nations’ economies: compared with three months ago, a smaller share say their economies improved over the past six months, and slightly more expect worsening conditions over the rest of 2011, according to our most recent survey.

The aspect that I found most interesting had to do with the North America executives’ responses to the question “How do you expect your country’s economy to be 6 months from now?”

Only 2% indicated “Substantially worse.”

Of the other four response categories, the majority indicated “Moderately better” (44%), or “The same” (35%); while 4% indicated “Substantially better.”  15% indicated “Moderately worse.”

I find these responses to be one more indication confirming that consensus expectations regarding future economic conditions are for that of low growth with (very) little chance of substantial economic weakness.

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I post various economic forecasts because I believe they should be carefully monitored.  However, as those familiar with this blog are aware, I do not agree with many of the consensus estimates and much of the commentary in these forecast surveys.

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The Special Note summarizes my overall thoughts about our economic situation

SPX at 1294.28 as this post is written

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The Importance of Scenario Planning to Businesses

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

The Wall Street Journal ran a story yesterday titled, “Pendulum is Swinging Back on ‘Scenario Planning.’”  Perhaps most interesting is the history of scenario planning.  Here is the link:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124683295589397615.html

As I have written about previously on this blog:

http://www.economicgreenfield.com/2009/06/18/businesses-and-economic-stress/

those who own or manage a business will likely continue to find themselves in a very challenging economic and business environment.  As I’ve discussed in the following article:

http://www.prosperitybypen.com/documents/ProsperityByPen-BusinessAnalysis.pdf

there are quite a few things that businesses can do to mitigate and/or avoid the potential damage this economic weakness can cause. 

Of course, it is unwise to generalize advice for all businesses, especially in an economic environment like that we currently have.  However, scenario planning (and the associated modeling) can be a very valuable tool in helping businesses understand their specific situation (options, vulnerabilities, opportunities, etc) over a range of economic scenarios.  It is paramount in effective business planning.  

At this point, based upon the statistics I have seen, it would appear as if businesses in general are underutilizing scenario planning.  I think this is very unfortunate, as it exposes businesses to risks and uncertainty that may be avoidable.

Should this economy continue to deteriorate, as I have discussed extensively on this blog, businesses could face a very difficult and tricky environment that may well be unpredictable.  In such an unpredictable environment, scenario planning increases in value.

SPX at 892.56 as this post is written  

 

Copyright 2009 by Ted Kavadas

 

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