Crisis Management in a Small Business

Abstract

Explains why, of all organizations at risk in the current economic recession, small businesses are the most vulnerable. Confirms that downturns are typically rapid and the prognosis poor, and that the emotional and financial hardships of personal bankruptcy are often severe. Challenges the popular management literature which urges decision makers to follow their intuition, on the ground that intuition is frequently biased and therefore likely to result in the wrong choices. In contrast to the intuitive response to crisis, which is contraction, seeks to demonstrate, through two case studies of small solicitors′ firms, why expansion, although it is apparently the more risky option, may be the best means of survival.