Fight back against recession
30 September 2008
Don’t panic! You are reading the right newsletter, but there have been some changes at Electronic Product Design magazine.
The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that I am not female, red-headed, or called Caroline. Caroline has moved on to pastures new after six successful years editing Electronic Product Design magazine and launching this email weekly update and web site along the way, as well as the e-Legacy awards. She goes with our thanks and best wishes.
So as I step up to the helm and take a look around there seems to be rough seas in every direction. The stormy economic climate is leaving every sector of the market in a state of uncertainty. In fact as I write, following the rejection of the $700bn Bush rescue package, the markets are bouncing around in a fashion that suggests they are looking for a new drain to sink down.
To be quite honest I didn’t think that when the credit crunch started in the US it would have such dire consequences across the globe, although there is still a touch of the unreal about the whole situation. Has the world’s economy really been turned on its head? Has manufacturing become not viable? Are we really teetering on the edge of a global recession? And all because of some dodgy mortgage deals in the USA!
I am slightly surprised that people don’t seem to have picked up on the irony of the situation. The financial sector caused the problem and the more they panic the worse it gets and, for once, they are first in the firing line. Maybe one solution would be to suspend all financial markets for a couple of weeks and tell everyone to calm down. In the cold light of day maybe not so much has changed in the world after all.
This approach (however unrealistic) would give everyone else a chance to draw breath and take stock of where they stand. For your average electronics company in the UK, if there is such a thing, would they look at themselves and think over the past year their technology had become out of date? Has their market disappeared? Have they changed their business model for the worse? In most cases the answer to all of these is of course ‘no’. So it seems a bit unfair that we all feel like we are balancing on the precipice.
Yet strangely I feel that the recent turmoil in the markets will soon become yesterday’s news. The strength of the British electronics industry will ensure that while we might go through a period of suffering in silence, we will emerge – in a quiet and understated way, of course – as a growth industry in the not too distant future. I predict exciting times ahead for UK electronics and I am delighted to be joining EPD at this time.
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