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Last Friday I was able to attend a National Fluid Power Association's meeting as a guest of keynote speaker Alan Beaulieu. Traveled down with Kiela Hine and Sandy Shaw. First of all if you've ever been to Laguna Beach you know it's beautiful, and the Montage resort is stunning. Ok yes, our offices are in Malibu but Laguna is really a special place.

Beaulieu has spoken for the NFPA before, but it was the first time I'd heard him address a group with such specific customization, and it blew me away. Beyond the data for fluid power, his take on China was particularly eye-opening, and of course he touched on the commercial real estate market as well. You can check out a more detailed recap of the talk on Michael Ference's Hydraulics & Pneumatics blog.

If you've read Make Your Move, Alan and Brian Beaulieu's new book, or if you've heard them speak recently, you know that they address the idea of a recovery. That's something a lot of speakers and pundits are discussing right now. What most people are looking for is some direction- how to form a strategy to move forward through the pre-recovery and recovery phases. The best place to look for that strategy: a firm that lives and breathes economic trends and has a track record of 60 years of accurate calls. That really played out for me when I heard their talk last Friday- I took notes, I absorbed the information, and I'm sure the audience is going to be able to use the strategies Beaulieu offered in coming months.

The solutions offered, both in the book and in their keynotes and consulting practice, are actually counterintuitive to the way most people imagine you should handle challenging times- there's no way you'll come up with these steps on your own.

As the book puts it, during "phase A" of the business cycle, the economy is improving, so businesses must become aggressive and make firm plans and commit to expenditures to capitalize on the upcoming boom. However, most will not. They, like most of those around them, will be stuck in recession mindsets: hoarding money, employing skeletal staffs and keeping inventories low. They will be afraid to change and will just sit tight, which will decrease their future profits and affect their very survival.

Highly recommend checking out the book, and if you have an event coming up, Alan and Brian can bring their insight to you with literally up to the minute actionable information and economic research centered on your industry.

Christine Johnson