As the US Recession looms like a dark cloud over our business plans-. it would be well to pause and consider how to make it go away. Wherever I talk to Indian CEOs, I get the impression they are just crossing their fingers and hoping it goes away by itself. Which it won't. Even if it does this time, it will come and hover over us again, sooner or later. Of course, there is a silver lining even in this cloud -  the recession will most likely reduce US consumption, close the current account deficit, and stabilize the dollar.. at a cost.

Banks seem to be using the capital infusion for all sorts of things other than lending money. No joy there..  simply cutting interest rates isn't going to help, either. When financial institutions are afraid to lend and people are afraid to borrow, in what Paul Krugman calls a 'Crisis of Faith', fiddling with the Federal Funds rate will be about as effective as Nero's fiddling was. The engine oil has gotten contaminated this time (for that is what the financial markets really are), and only a complete cleaning out of the engine will help. ..which will take time!

One common ploy, not even easy to adopt, really, is to shift focus to European markets rather than the US. Which would only put off the evil day just a bit, since it is quite certain that European economies are closely tied to the US economy anyway.

So let us dismiss these easy answers and bend our minds to what an Indian company, acting on its own, can do.

Always a good thing to do, any company can shed 10% of its cost without any real pain, anyway. This is as good an opportunity as any to remind IT's so-called 'knowledge workers' that 20% raise year after year, for doing the exact same work they did last year, is not the natural order of things. But not everyone has been so lucky, especially in the manufacturing and agricultural sectors, so belt tightening can only go so far.

When our  US client is nervous and unwilling to invest, and so puts his own expansion plans on hold, the one thing we can do is propose something different than the tried and tested 'time and materials' or  even 'price for guaranteed volumes' proposition. It may not be enough to point out that outsourcing will save him money ' when he is contemplating 100% saving by not launching that expansion or change initiative at all! We must realize that the client is really not sure, either, whether the recession is for real, and, even if it is, whether it will affect his business, or not. Hedging his bets is what he is contemplating. How can we help him move forward?

Can we offer him a business proposition where we share risk - share in the upside (and downside) rather than simply get a fixed revenue and manage costs (which is what almost all Indian companies do, even the best of them)? For instance, IT services company need to start offering customers a fee per user (customer's customer) or royalty models rather than '60 man-months to build this system'. If the client does well, we do well. Needless to say, it also means we have to
· learn how to assess the client's prospects in his market 
· learn how to actually help him sell better in his markets 

Which means we will have to think like venture capitalists and investors rather than suppliers! Quite a change, but well within our capabilities. We just need to use them.

Another solution is brand building. Brands are relatively recession proof due to their emotional hold. It is time to pay more than lip-service to the notion of being 'preferred partner'.. move it from the corporate ppt to reality!