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As we survey the wreckage from this unprecedented global economic upheaval, it's important to remember the BIG big picture - the way capitalism works. What we're going through is a process of creative destruction. The recession is an adjustment to an era of excess, exposing businesses that relied on ever-growing property values flowing through into discretionary income and unsustainable spending.

In short, a lot of businesses have floated on the rising tide of prosperity.  And to put it even more simply, what goes up must come down.

The good news is the "creative" part of creative destruction.  The effects of the recession will be the cause of the recovery:

• Labour costs are coming down.
• Capacity is reducing as uneconomic companies go out of business.
• This means that survivors will be able, in time, to put up their prices and thereby recover profitability.
• The consumer will take their hands out of their pockets, though they won't spend as freely as they did during the boom.
• Companies will come up with new ways to entice customers to spend by offering value appropriate to the their needs today.

This is the most interesting thing I'm finding as I work with individual business owners.  I get to interact directly with about 40 business owners every month, and the conversations I've been having this month are about finding new products, repackaging existing products, price fighting strategies, new brands for different segments, acquisition of struggling competitors - all big questions.  And actually quite exciting. 

It really is true that times of greatest change create the greatest opportunity, because yesterday's incumbent is today's straggler.  When all the old assumptions no longer hold, the answer to the question "why not" is not what it used to be.

Even given the pressure that most of us are under, we can feel a growing sense of possibility and excitement about what might lie ahead.  We may be innovating only because we have to, but who's to say that today's desperate measure won't become the mainstay of our future business?

Given that no one knows the future, it's as logical to be optimistic as it is to be pessimistic. In which case, choosing to be optimistic makes a lot more sense.  Let's face it: the only wrong thing to do is to do nothing.

I don't think enough businesses have gone beyond the superficial response of cutting costs. I don't think people are taking the long view. I'm not talking here about Big Visions, but simply beyond the next 12 months. This recession and its consequences are going to be with us for the next 3-5 years, and we need to think about how we're going to not only stick around but to prosper over that kind of timeframe.

Something this big doesn't get fixed overnight, and low economic growth is likely to be with us for some time. Forget last year, and forget the last decade. It was an aberration. The future is going to look a lot like every other decade except the 2000s.  Welcome to the new normal.

The big opportunity in this recession is to take market share off incumbents who respond too slowly to the change in the market's requirements - incumbents who keep pumping out the same stuff when the customer wants greater value.