The Upside to the downturn

1. Spurt in entrepreneurship
2. Re-surfacing of the systemic view and future - option portfolio approach
3. Protect Growth Initiatives - Elevate, consolidate, and protect innovation funding
4. Refocusing on value and what it means to, / the customer
5. Demand & supply balance
6. Time for structural changes - long term impact
7. balance of credit to cash from a consumers perspective
8. renovation and repair
9. Re-skilling oneself
10. rationalization
11. people to collaborate remotely
12. reduce office space - increase productivity
13. corporate & board governance - under scrutiny
14. re-modelling of business and take long term strategic positions
    
15. Improve Cost Discipline
16. Reduce Cost of Goods Sold & Use, not General & Administrative Spending
17. Incorporate capital costs into SKU cost reduction

Retail in India

Source:http://retail-tech.blogspot.com/2008/09/organized-retail-in-india-to-form-14-18.html

Unorganised Retail & Organized Retail
The advent of organized retail has impacted the unorganized retail. But the unorganized retail is showing remarkable resilience and is all set to challenge the organized retail with innovative business models, hybrid formats, in-store operations focus etc.
The organized retail is where most of the focus has been and a lot of metrics have been floated that talk of very high growth rates. Information on unorganized retail is sketchy thus the possible ways of their resilience & responsiveness are not known.
But a closer study of metrics tells that focusing on revenue per square foot & area under retail, as levers of growth and value might not be the whole story and may not be entirely accurate.
And for the unorganized retail the relevance of these metrics might be very different (or in a different manner) than what it would be for organized retail.
If we look at organized and unorganized retail as the two extremes of formats, operations, consolidation etc. there is an opportunity to explore multiple, innovative forms of retail that can exist / co-exist profitably within these 2 extremes.

A scan of recent activities in the retail market shows some initial indicators for the same (even if it is at one end of the extreme...):

• Retailers, realty cos’ form partnerships to beat slowdown - Revenue sharing rental based model with minimum upfront payment emerging – without minimum upfront guarantee.
  

• Vishal Retail is in early stage discussions with some top developers to enter into a revenue sharing-based rental model,Megamart has signed a few large stores on revenue sharing-based rental model ,Brandhouse Retails.

• Big retailers not keen to anchor new malls (future group plans to open stores along with other retailers so that it doesn't have to go through a long gestation period to reach optimum sales).
  

Emerging Social Impact of Global Growth Slowdown - Recession

Source: http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/30/news/international/china_migration.reut/index.htm
1. Chinese workers leaving cities in droves:
The social impact of the global growth slowdown is now becoming evident. The migration of over 130 million (rural) Chinese (prime drivers of China's long extended growth) to cities and industrial centres (as workers) is one of the largest migrations recorded. These 130 million workers / migrants - are known as China's "floating population". This floating population of workers rarely settle where they work (due to prohibitive residency rules) and they return in droves to their hometowns for the Chinese lunar new year & then go back to work, later in the year.
But today there appears to be a reverse migration. As demand for consumption in the world dips - the production centres of the world face a challenge of closing shutters.
It will be critical to see how many of these workers (floating population) do really return to work.

Source: http://biz.yahoo.com/hftn/081229/122908_miller_downwardmobility_fortune.html?.v=3
2. The Upside of downward mobility:
Fact: As much as 100 million Americans today live in families that are earning less in real terms than their parents did at the same age.
The rise of economies of China & India means the earnings picture for US is expected to get worse - One in three American jobs may be exposed before long to competition from workers overseas, resulting in putting an effective wage cap on large swaths of employment even if jobs don't actually move offshore.
More research dispels a myth that upward social mobility is higher in US as compared to Europe.
Post depression and world war, there was only America that was left standing with no competition (economic, business) in sight the growth in the subsequent years was astounding. The emergence of the classless society, distribution of prosperity was enabled by the Labor unions, a robust minimum wage, progressive taxes, and a sense of restraint on corporate boards regarding the salaries of chief executives - but those were the early days...

Let Chaos Reign, Then Rein In Chaos—Repeatedly: Managing Strategic Dynamics For Corporate Longevity

Source: This is an article by "ROBERT A. BURGELMAN* and ANDREW S. GROVE". Titled - "Let Chaos Reign, Then Rein In Chaos—Repeatedly: Managing Strategic Dynamics For Corporate Longevity"

They explore the factors behind corporate longevity.
By combining longitudinal field research and executive experience, the authors propose that corporate longevity depends on matching cycles of autonomous and induced strategy processes to different forms of strategic dynamics, and that the role of alert strategic leadership is to appropriately balance the induced and autonomous processes throughout these cycles.
It is further proposed that such strategic leadership is the means through which leadership style exerts its influence on corporate longevity.
Their findings can be related to organizational research on structural inertia, learning and adaptation, as well as to formal theories of complex adaptive systems. They also contribute to resolving the seeming contradiction between a study of corporations that attributes exceptional long-term success to leadership style, and the more common proposition that strategy is the determinant of long-term performance.
This is an insightful article and beyond the jargon very interesting to read.
I present my synopses of the article here:

US Energy Conservation - efficiency - Impetus Impact

Source:http://money.cnn.com/2008/12/23/news/economy/conservation_stimulus/index.htm?postversion=2008122410

For the US the new mantra is 'Save energy & the economy' Its effectiveness and impact would unravel in the coming months but it is a step in the right direction.
This mantra is to be given form in the following manner. There are a lot of opportunities emerging that can be leveraged by business and individuals in terms of jobs and business projects, but its real impact in creating value beyond the said incremental value is the key to its success.

Energy Conservation in the US - Impetus & Impact