This paper will demonstrate how any organisation – even a division or functional department – can apply its key steps in order to drive better decision making, both during a recession and in preparation for the subsequent upturn. This need for maintaining a strategic approach is critical. According to research conducted by Deloitte in Autumn 2008 – before most economies were ‘officially in recession’ – 78% of companies were planning high priority cost reduction programmes. While many of these businesses had already factored cuts into existing strategic change programmes as early as 2007, there is genuine concern that more invasive cost-cutting decisions designed to deliver short-term benefits will harm the long-term competitiveness of the companies concerned. (PDF 417KB)