February’s Fortune magazine has an interview with Jim Collins, who is best known for his books Built to Last and Good to Great. In the interview they talk a bit about how to not only survive, but better position yourself in this economy. Now, being a management ‘guru’ they were talking on the corporate scale, but they apply equally to the team or individual level as well.

  • Those who panic, die on the mountain. You don’t just sit on the mountain. You either go up or you go down, but you don’t sit and wait to get clobbered.
  • What really matters is that you actually have core values — not what they are
  • The more challenged you are, the more you have to have your values
  • It is the caliber of the people that get you through tough times; not technology
  • Have a hedge against scariness
  • Don’t zoom in during crisis, zoom out
  • The right people don’t need to be managed. The moment you feel you need to tightly manage someone, you’ve made a hiring mistake
  • The right people don’t have a job: they have responsibilities
  • People who take credit in good times and blame external factors in bad do not deserve to lead
  • Turbulence is your friend
  • If you are managing for the quarter century, [you are disciplined] so that when the bad times come you’re ferocious
  • What can we do to not only survive, but turn this into a defining moment of history
  • The goal is not to survive; but to prevail