In my last post, I offered some guidance on weathering business downturns, based on my experiences at HighPoint during the recession. This month, I want to move to the next phase of the cycle – stabilizing ahead of the upswing.

Economic downturns are one of those events for which there are no written rules. There are no courses that prepare you for the multitude of “what if” scenarios that can unfold when it strikes. I’ve had the ‘pleasure’ of experiencing two downturns in very different ways, but I’ve learned a lot from the journey and emerged stronger for it.

When building a business from the ground-up, your first inclination may be to bootstrap it and do everything yourself; I know mine was. But after awhile you realize your time and energy is better spent on the 20 percent of things where you add the most value to the business. So you pivot to hiring folks who can support your growth. Sometimes you make mistakes along the way, but here is what I’ve learned from them.

Mid-May marks the start of the annual business school graduation season. Over the next few weeks, schools from Anderson and Booth to Wharton and Yale will graduate some of the top new business talent, who all feel “ready to lead organizations into the future.” I put that in quotes – why? Because that’s the mindset coming out of business school, of the graduates themselves…but the reality is that couldn’t be farther from the truth.

The annual convergence of the end of NCAA basketball season, the onset of the NHL and NBA playoffs, the lead-up to the NFL draft, and the kickoff of the major league baseball season have player stats and sports analytics front of mind for many fans and data nuts – myself included. But rumbles of discontent portend a possible storm on the horizon. It seems not everyone’s a convert to the data-driven future of sports (or business).

My father had a certain expectation of the workplace – he expected to be able to leave the house every morning, work uninterrupted throughout the day and be home in time for dinner, the evening news and Rukeyser’s Wall $treet Week. For many of us – and I’m guessing nearly everyone reading this article – it feels like there’s no such thing as a balance between work and life. When it comes to your career, you’re either all in or all out.

Crises, be they natural or man-made are an ever present threat to business. So what are companies doing to prepare for disruptions, not just those that can be addressed through disaster planning and business continuity strategies, but those truly unknown scenarios that it seems only the most resilient organizations survive?

Thanks for stopping by HighPoint Associates’ new HighLights blog. My colleagues and I will be using this space to share our views on the day’s biggest business issues and the critical challenges our customers face. We’ll also spend time discussing disruption, highlighting the new approaches companies are taking to solving their business challenges.