Always a Winner: Finding Your Competitive Advantage in an Up and Down Economy

by Peter Navarro

"In much the same way that Good to Great uncovered hitherto hidden secrets of highly successful companies, Navarro’s Always a Winner uses extensive research to reveal the overriding importance of learning how to forecast and strategically manage the business cycle for competitive advantage. In doing so, this book provocatively explores a critical aspect of successful management virtually untapped by the existing strategy literature." ―Dan DiMicco, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Nucor Steel " Always a Winne r is an important and timely guide to thriving in challenging economic times. Prof. Navarro deftly bridges the academic and business communities, showing corporate leaders how to read economic tea-leaves to anticipate business cycles. His "Master Cyclist" credo offers many practical tips and real-world case studies for steering companies through turbulent economic seas." ―Mark Greene, Ph.D, Chief Executive Officer, FICO (Fair Isaac Corp.) "Navarro’s Always a Winner  shows why forecasting the economy with a ruler can be lethal for corporate executives and money managers. He demonstrates how to skillfully anticipate the ups and downs of the economy and successfully navigate through them. The current economic crisis clearly demonstrates why this book is so important to have on your bookshelf." ―Mark Zandi, Chief Economist and Cofounder of Moody’s Economy.com " Always a Winner is required reading for every entrepreneur, money manager, and independent investor hoping to outperform the market and retire one day." ―Mark T. Brookshire, Founder of StockTrak.com and WallStreetSurvivor.com " Navarro’s wealth of real world examples will show you how to make both economic recessions and recoveries invaluable allies in executing competitive corporate strategies. A must read!" ― L aksh m an  A chu t han, Managing Director, Economic Cycle Research Institute Why recessions are far more dangerous than any 10 competitors Most companies make a lot of money during economic expansions-and lose a lot of money during recessions. That is the way it has always been. That is the way it need not  always be. This book will show you how to "always be a winner" over the course of the entire business cycle-not just when economic times are good. To do this job, this book will arm you with all the strategies and tactics and forecasting tools you will need to profitably manage your organization through the business cycle seasons-from the best of boom times to the worst of recessionary times. In this book, you will learn to The forecasting tools and management strategies revealed in this book have been developed over the last five years by the author-the world's leading expert on managing the business cycle for competitive advantage. By learning to strategically manage the business cycle, your organization will be able to create a powerful competitive and sustainable advantage over its rivals and thereby find the grail sought by every executive team in the world-superior financial performance. In this way, Always a Winner provides you with the in-depth insight and practical advice you need to help your company survive and thrive in the increasingly risky conditions of the 21st century.

Genres: Economics

240 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

A Professor of Economics and Public Policy at the Paul Merage School of Business, University of California, Irvine and holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University. He received several teaching awards in 2010 for the MBA programs that he teaches.

Navarro ran for office in San Diego, California, three times. In 1992, he ran for mayor, winning the primary race, but losing to Susan Golding in the runoff. In 1996, he ran for the 49th Congressional District, but lost to Republican Brian Bilbray. In 2001, Navarro ran in a special election to fill the District 6 San Diego city council seat, but lost in the primary.

Reviews

[Marco Rizk · Rating 3 out of 5]

The books explains some basics of economy with one theme mainly "recession". In brief the book provides some good strategies for managers and CEOs for the business cycles and hiring. Two things I didn't like were :
1- The book is very repetitive probably same content could've been compressed to one quarter of the size
2- It adapts only one theme "recession" and no other cases included

[Cj 888 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Educational, able to check things the book is suggesting online with today's info and learn more about certain indicators to watch out for.

[Victor · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is always hard to make sense of financial numbers, economic reports and government policy.Peter Navarro uses this book to illustrate that a close monitoring of the financial markets, lead economic indicators and other economic measures can help firms do well in preparing for a recession.

Always a Winner: Finding Your Competitive Advantage in an Up and Down Economy is filled with examples of comapnies that endured the 2007-2009 fiasco and others who plummeted dramatically in the same time period. It is not a comprehensive book about the conditions that will lead a firm to thrive during economic uncertainty times, but it provides suggestions on who to observe the numbers and prepare for chaos, while still outperfoming competitors that were not so observant.

This book is simple, does not contain hard-to-grasp economic concepts and theory, although it provides some brief explanations as to what some lead economic indicators are. It can help managers be more cautious when these economic indicators start to give warning signs and shares examples of what some companies did to avert dissaster.

We mention that this is not a comprehensive book; truly, it is up to each firm to do what is best to gain that competitive advantage, but its a good guide as to what to do to be vigilant of red flags.

[E · Rating 5 out of 5]

Making in-house economic forecasts meaningful

Companies that carefully monitor the economy can prosper in all phases of the business cycle, a relentless alternation of economic expansions and recessions. Best-selling author and scholar Peter Navarro champions a do-it-yourself approach to forecasting. He says that instead of relying on outside experts, firms should produce their own economic forecasts to ensure optimal decision making in both the upturns and downturns of the business cycle. Navarro provides multiple examples of economic indicators that require no formal education in economics to understand. His book also includes case studies of companies that embraced macroeconomic analysis and of others that ignored the potential of tracking the broad economy. getAbstract recommends this book to any manager who wants to use economic forecasts to make better business decisions.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book teaches a few methods for monitoring and predicting the rise and fall of the business cycle. If this book would have been around before the Great Recession, many folks could have avoided a lot of headaches.

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The best guide to reveal the advantages in an up-and-down Economy

[João Lobato · Rating 1 out of 5]

Livro com algumas teorias interessantes mas com erros em algumas ideias defendidas.