Survival game

"The major piece of advice I would give is keep the education and training going, because we will be in desperate straits if we don't. The industry stopped educating and training people in the last recession, and it is still suffering the ill affects of that action now."

Trussler was prepared for the skills shortage a recession would create in the 1990s, having been through it before in the 1970s and 1980s. He didn't ditch the training and education programme at Kyle Stewart, unlike many other construction companies. "Having seen other downturns that were a lot less severe than what we experienced in the 1990s, I didn't want us to be suffering from a shortage of well trained staff as we came out of recession. Unfortunately, one of the cost cutting exercises is that training and education comes to a standstill. It must be maintained and it is possible to do it, as we did at Kyle Stewart. But we also reduced staff by 40%. It becomes a very difficult exercise against the things you know are common sense for the future and the short-term battle to save people's jobs."

So how do you survive a recession? Psychologically, as head of the company, it takes its toll, explains Trussler. "It sounds self-pitying to say, but making people redundant is extraordinarily stressful. You know the people, you've worked with them, they've been trained in the company. But you reach the point where the company has to take drastic action or it folds. For mental self-protection you almost think of it in figures rather than faces or names. All the sympathy should go to the individual though, because the stress they face is far worse.

"The recession that began in 1990 was the worst I have experienced," he adds. "Not only because of its depth, but also its length. It was even worse than the 1930s, because back then the end of that recession was building-led.

"You only have to look at the London suburbs to see how many houses and public buildings were constructed in the 1930s. But the last recession was very severe. We didn't see an end to it. It was a struggle to keep up morale, but we tried to keep the staff informed and have a transparent management system."

And how about surviving as a business? Although partnering wasn't the buzzword in the early 1990s that it is now, Trussler says it was something that helped Kyle Stewart through.

John Trussler was chief executive of kyle stewart during the last recession and had to make 40% of his staff redundant. But, he says, whatever else you do you must keep educating and training

"We didn't talk about partnering in the way it is now, but we were fortunate enough to have several excellent clients. Others who were merely relying on the competitive market didn't do so well. The only potential problem with partnering is that when you get into a deep recession, somebody in the client company is going to say, I wonder if we tendered this we would get it any cheaper and immediately partnering's out the window."

There are other measures you can take to help you in a recession, but, says Trussler, you should take note of them even in the good times. "When things are going well, companies do become a bit chubby, a bit less efficient than they should be. All the firms who are well managed will be looking to be as lean and mean as possible. If you do that, you'll be ahead of the game."

And failure to pay and collect your debts could come back to haunt you in bad times, according to Trussler. "Cashflow is very important in times of recession. You should be striving to obtain every penny that you are owed. It's no good leaving the money in your client's bank, when it could be in your account earning you money. And if that company goes bust you could have problems recovering what you are owed."

But despite all the doom and gloom surrounding the economy at the moment, Trussler doesn't see another dip of the proportions of the 1990s.

"I'm unsure of whether there is another recession on the way. There is a great deal of talk about it and boards of directors can affect the economy much more than action by government. I've seen it happen in this industry before, that it is feared we are heading for recession, so companies cut back on servicing company cars, for example, which immediately has a roll-on affect on the car industry. You can talk yourself into recession very easily.