{"id":110768,"date":"2009-12-22T16:56:27","date_gmt":"2009-12-22T21:56:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.wsj.com\/economics\/2009\/12\/22\/companies-new-frugality-a-reason-for-concern\/"},"modified":"2009-12-22T16:56:27","modified_gmt":"2009-12-22T21:56:27","slug":"companies-%e2%80%98new-frugality%e2%80%99-a-reason-for-concern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/110768","title":{"rendered":"Companies \u2018New Frugality\u2019 A Reason for Concern"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you’re hoping 2010 will bring relief from the horrors of 2009, here\u0092s one reason for worry.<\/p>\n

Global businesses are not doing enough cost-cutting<\/a>\u00a0to prepare for the harsh reality of a new “slow-growth” world, says the Boston Consulting Group<\/strong>, based on its recent survey of 434 firms in seven countries, each with more than $1 billion in annual revenues.<\/p>\n

More than two-thirds of respondents said they expect lower profits in the future, and 87 percent say consumers will be highly sensitive to prices. And yet, says BCG, \u0093too few companies have taken or plan to take the long-term, defensive measures necessary to survive and thrive in the wake of the Great Recession.\u0094<\/p>\n

For instance, the company says, \u0093only 28 percent say that reducing labor costs is a priority for 2010.\u0094<\/p>\n

BCG\u0092s Daniel Stelter<\/strong> says European firms are even further behind the curve than U.S. ones \u00a0because European firms were temporarily propped up by costly government payroll subsidies.<\/p>\n

It all\u00a0suggests companies are now at the center of\u00a0a classic \u0093paradox of thrift,\u0094 the idea that cost saving measures, while beneficial to individual actors, will collectively hurt the economy as a whole.<\/p>\n

In 2009, it was consumers’ frugality that had businesses worried. Next year, it looks to be business frugality that has consumers worried.<\/p>\n

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If you’re hoping 2010 will bring relief from the horrors of 2009, here\u0092s one reason for worry. Global businesses are not doing enough cost-cutting\u00a0to prepare for the harsh reality of a new “slow-growth” world, says the Boston Consulting Group, based on its recent survey of 434 firms in seven countries, each with more than $1 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":850,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110768","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/850"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110768\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}