Thursday, June 11, 2009

"What did you do in the recession?"

There are opportunities in every downturn. You can read about how some of Canada's coolest companies are taking advantage of the recession by reading my feature story in the new June issue of PROFIT.

In "Thank goodness for the recession," I interviewed more than a dozen PROFIT 100 CEOs - the leaders of Canada's Fastest-Growing Companies - to find out how they are making the most of the meltdown.

I had all kinds of interesting responses, including companies taking time out to train their teams, hiring lower-cost sales help, buying up used equipment at auction, asking suppliers for more credit, eschewing low interest rates to invest in inventory, and expanding into new international markets.

CBC Dragon Robert Herjavec of Herjavec Group even got into the action, telling us about his new venture managing clients' computer-security operations. It's lower-margin than his regular business, but it creates closer customers relationships, and enables him to hire lots of good people now on the job market at reasonable cost.

For more real-time, made-in-Canada success stories, click here.

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