Sox First

What are the secrets of the downturn leader? What sort of strategies are needed during a recession. I identify 10 of them in my piece here.

The 10 secrets are communication, keeping up staff morale, maintaining or even increasing productivity, maintaining your own morale, looking at your decision making processes and asking whether you need to speed things up and talk to your direct reports more often, spending more time managing board and investor relations and talking to customers and suppliers, striking the right balance between keeping your best staff and managing your payroll costs, keeping up appearances and setting a good example to the rest of staff by making sacrifices and finally, managing your cash flow.

• Has the next downturn been triggered?
• Rupert Murdoch's downturn blues
• Downturn hits democracy
• Innovation in the downturn