McCombs TODAY

On Sept. 17, Texas Executive Education hosted a faculty panel addressing Strategies for Growth in Trying Times. We captured a few of the highlights on video:

What country is poised to be the next global economic powerhouse?
Senior Lecturer of Management John Doggett spoke about the future of the global marketplace. “We in this country right now are undergoing a navel-gazing exercise of amazing proportions,” he said. “We’re moving into a time where more and more economic activity is going on outside of the United States.” He added “Whether you’re small, medium or large, you’re going to face more competition from countries that you never thought of as competitors.” Doggett said in the next 15-20 years, China will be the largest economy in the world, and India will be “neck and neck” with the U.S. for the second largest economy.

Is this a good time for mergers and aqcuisitons?
James Nolen, senior distinguished lecturer in finance, said that for strategic investors with cash, buying other companies is a good strategy for growth during a recession. Private equity and venture capital is virtually dried up for new investments, and the secondary markets are selling at deep discounts when limited partners want out of current investments.

What should firms do when consumers are frozen by recession?
Raji Srinivasan, associate professor of marketing, explained that recession generally leads to dramatic shifts in the market share of companies. “Companies that are in the top 10% of market share move down to the bottom, and those that are at the bottom move up,” said Srinivasan. Firms who are positioned to survive these turbulent times should consider questioning all operations to look for opportunities that were not viable in normal business cycles.

The open house also included an industry panel with John Hanks - VP, National Instruments; Tiffany Dávila-unne - EVP, BBVA Compass; and John Berra - Chairman, Emerson Process Management, discussed specific strategies they use to navigate turbulent economic times. Click through to see full video of both the faculty and industry panels