The Well-Timed Strategy: Managing the Business Cycle for Competitive Advantage

Most companies ignore one of their best opportunities for honing competitive advantage: the opportunity to proactively manage business cycles and macroeconomic turbulence. Despite the profound impact that the business cycle has on the fortunes and fate of so many businesses large and small--and the employees and investors that depend on them--not fa single book offers a comprehensive guide to strategically and tactically managing the business cycle. The Well-Timed Strategy shows how to manage not just the business cycle and industry cycles but also today's unprecedented level of macroeconomic turbulence. Peter Navarro shows how to align every facet of business strategy, tactics, and operations to reflect changing business conditions. Drawing on hundreds of examples, Navarro distills clear, simple management principles for managing economic upswings and downswings. Navarro addresses everything from inventory, production, and supply chain management to marketing, pricing, and long-term capital investment. Navarro presents examples from around the globe, ranging from Broadcom and Cemex to Paccar and Xilinx Chinese real estate developers to U.S. small caps. Clear, concise, and exceptionally readable, The Well-Timed Strategy makes complex macroeconomic forecasting easy to understand -- and even easier to act upon.

Introduction  xvii

Chapter 1: Strategies and Tactics of the Master Cyclist Executive  1

Chapter 2: Countercycling Your Capital Expenditures  15

Chapter 3: The Acquisitive Master Cyclist Buys Low and Sells High  39

Chapter 4: The Art of “Cherry Picking” and Other Well-Timed Tactics of the Human Resources Manager  55

Chapter 5: “Macromanaging” Your Production, Inventory, and Supply Chain  75

Chapter 6: Master Cyclist Marketing Through the Business Cycle Seasons  95

Chapter 7: Pricing the Cycle and Managing Credit and Account Receivables  111

Chapter 8: Proactive Profiting From Oil Price Spikes, Interest Rate Hikes, and Exchange Rate Risks  129

Chapter 9: When You Can’t Beat the Business Cycle, Hedge Its Risks!  149

Chapter 10: Surviving—and Prospering from—the Economic Shocks of War, Terrorism, Drought, and Disease  169

Chapter 11: The Master Cyclist’s Favorite Forecasting Tools  185

Concluding Thoughts  211

Appendix A: The Master Cyclist Project’s Treasure Trove of Data and All-Star Team  213

Appendix B: A Business Cycle Primer  223

Notes  233

Index  239