You Can Play the Blame Game, But What’s the Point?

It’s difficult to put a finger on what, exactly, is most responsible for the current business climate. But, as our cover suggests, recent developments will certainly carry over into next year. And a better understanding of 2001 leaves us better prepared for ’02. Sure, we know that, in general, the economy and the terrorist attacks are having an impact on business. But do we really know how those phenomena trickle down to affect customer bases and sales opportunities?

While trying to get to the bottom of those very questions, we initially had a fuzzy idea of how events of 2001 were intertwined, let alone what they portend for the future. Consider the political cartoon that recently ran in the local newspaper:

A man sits facing his television while the current buzz words lurch out at him: “Anthrax, terrorist threats, war, security,” in bold letters. The man says to himself: “Enough of the doom and gloom. What else is on?” and he flicks the remote. The second frame shows the man being flung back in his chair, his feet kicking the air helplessly while the set screams out: “Recession!”

It may be hard to escape the doom and gloom, but we can at least give it perspective and context for our business readers.

We found that distributors and manufacturers are being affected in different ways and degrees. Some are struggling, while others — believe it or not — are hardly affected, or even thriving.