The book "Always a Winner" discusses how organizations can gain a competitive advantage even during economic downturns. The author, Peter Navarro, argues that recessions can harm organizations more than strong competitors. He claims companies can forecast economic cycles and implement strategies to make their businesses more resilient. Navarro asserts that "Master Business Cycle Managers" monitor economic indicators to reduce risk and seize opportunities during downturns, such as cutting inventory before demand falls and investing when prices are low. The book provides guidance on predicting cycles, applying well-timed strategies, and creating an organization structured for long-term success in fluctuating market conditions.

1. Summary on “ALWAYS A WINNER”
The title of the book is “Always a winner: Finding your competitive advantage in an
up and down economy”. And the author is Peter Navarro. The book was published in the year
of 2009 by Wiley-India publishers.
A recession can do far more damage to your organization than any of your ten
toughest competitors. Without question, this is the most important lesson that business
executives have all too painfully learned in the carnage of the 2007-2009 economic crash.
In a very pragmatic way, the book offersuseful guidance to help companies survive and thrive
in the increasingly risky conditions of the twenty-first century, revealing how we
can:Forecast movements and key recessionary turning points in the business cycle,
implement a set of “battle-tested” strategies over the course of the business cycle, rebuild our
organization with a broader strategic business cycle orientation and make our organization
more recession-resistant resilient over the longer term.
Navarro investigates how an organization can better assess the economic cycle in
order to subsequently prepare itself in a way that ensures a continuous advantage over the
competition. In Always a Winner, the successor to The Well-Timed Strategy from 2006,
Navarro develops his position based on quite a large amount of research that shows that a
recession does more harm than the ten strongest competitors. Interestingly, Navarro (or so he
claims) not only uses the same method as Jim Collins (for his book Good to Great), i.e.
conducting a pairwise comparison of, in this case, organizations who survive a recession
either strongly or poorly, but he also considers something that Collins has overlooked.
According to Navarro, truly „good‟ companies has an excellent knowledge of economic and
financial market indicators and use this knowledge to actively manage the strategic business
cycle, which is the cycle in which the economy goes up and down in turns.
This means that they work in a countercyclical manner based on that information: 1)
reducing stock before the peak in the cycle instead of producing large quantities of products
for anticipated sales that never materialize and, as a result, not being left with unmarketable
products when demand collapses, 2) hiring extra staff before the low point in the cycle has
been reached instead of firing (more) employees, in order to be prepared for the upcoming
growth and enticing the best people away from the competition, 3) at the least, keeping
marketing and advertising expenses at the same level at before the recession, but spending in
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2. a more targeted manner, resulting in greater impact since the competition no longer
advertises, and 4) investing and taking over during the low point of the cycle, as this is when
the best bargains are to be had. Organizations that follow these recommendations are called
Master Business Cycle Managers and their ability to deal effectively with the strategic
business cycle ensures that they emerge from difficult times as the winners.
Navarro‟s research shows that an organization must develop the following three skills
in order to become a Master Business Cycle Manager:Ability to predict the economic
cycle,ability to apply strategies for managing economic cycles in a well-timed manner and
creating the Master Business Cycle Organization.Navarro examines in depth the economic
theory that is necessary to become a Master Business Cycle Organization and does it in a way
that is also easy for a layperson to follow.
Navarro does not really closely examine the connection between the skill needed to
become a Master Business Cycle Organization and the results of other research into high
performance organizations (HPOs). As a result, it can appear that an organization only needs
to become adept in strategic business cycle management. But a company needs to not only
see the economic turning points approaching, but also have the ability to use them to its
advantage.
By learning to strategically manage the business cycle, an 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 us with the in-depth insight and practical advice we need to
help our company sustain in the perilous economic conditions of the 21st century. I feel this
book beautifully demonstrates how to skilfully anticipate the ups and downs of the economy
and successfully navigate through them.
Submitted by:
Swarupa Rani Sahu
(F11116)
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