New business challenges and strategies in a fragile economic environment

Abstract

CEOs all around the world have experienced one of the worst recessions in the past few months and faced a situation they could not fully understand and cope with. Many countries were staggered by the speed with which conditions in economic environment changed. The crisis created doubts and uncertainty not only over the global markets and economy but it shook the trust of many business leaders in their ability to see the future with a positive expectation and hope. Although many admit that they should have anticipated the impact of a crisis sooner, not many of them had enough time to consider various strategic options. While companies have been slowly recovering business activities to pre-crisis levels, there have still remained some impacts that may influence future actions. Businesses agile enough to take advantage of chances for growth and expansion gained great momentum in the race for future advantage. What are the new challenges and strategies in today's fragile economic environment and which decisions made today may have a lasting impact on their companies' competitive position in future?