Creating success: preparing for growth and prosperity in the economic recovery.

• Author: Stewart, Angela

Austrian economist Josef Schumpeter described economic downturns as "a good cold shower for the economic system." The jolt leaves some companies impaired, while others become invigorated.

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Economic downturns force companies to decrease waste, improve efficiencies and focus on the most important aspects of their businesses. Business leaders operating in this unstable environment will have to make difficult choices.

Many smart companies prospered coming out of economic downturns, including General Electric, Disney, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft and Proctor & Gamble. During the 2000-2001 meltdown, both Google and Amazon gained market share. These companies resisted the temptation to retreat and wait for recovery.

Instead of becoming overwhelmed by the challenges, high performers become more focused, adapt their market strategies, exploit opportunities to pick up market share and solidify customer loyalty.

"One of the most important pieces is to really understand which of your customers are the most strategic and which of your customers you make the most money from on a net profit basis," says David Mead of the Mead Consulting Group and chairman of ACG-Denver.

Refining such strategies will be a focal point of this year's Rocky Mountain Corporate Growth Conference, scheduled for Wednesday, March 11, and Thursday, March 12, at the Inverness Hotel and Conference Center in Englewood.

Keynote speakers at the seventh annual event include Terry Jones, CEO of Travelocity, Judi Sheppard Missett, CEO of Jazzercise Inc., and futurist Jack Uldrich. You can also expect to hear some wisdom from this year's growth award winners. Yvon Pierre Cariou, CEO of Dynamic Materials, and Rick Fort, CEO of Education Sales Management.

Mead says making certain you're taking the best possible care of your best customers is one of the most important aspects of thriving in a downturn.

"It sounds very obvious, but what happens in these times is that organizations in their need to cut back to preserve cash flow, wind up damaging their relationships with their most valuable customers," he says.

Mead uses the example of Commerce City-based Timberline Steel, which faced a recessionary climate during 2001 and 2002 when commodity prices were low and manufacturing was down. The steel services company worked hard to find out how to help its best customers.

Timberline contracted with Mead's company to review its business strategies, a first for a company that had traditionally handled such functions internally.

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"The most important strategy that Dave helped us develop ... was coming up with ways to expand...