It's all the economy's fault

As news about a weak US economy continues to get posted, you can expect businesses to hide poor performance behind this economic curtain. In truth not all businesses that do poorly are suffering from a bad economy. Many are simply suffering from poor management and poor products. Of course if you dominate a market with huge market share then you will feel the effects of a shrinking market more than most in all likelihood. But most companies don't dominate. Most companies have a tiny share of the market. So even if the market is shrinking they could still grow by taking market share away from a competitor. To do that they will of course have to run a better company than the competitor. That may not be easy, especially in an uncertain economy but it's not impossible. So next time you hear a CEO blame the economic climate for worse than expected results you should ask yourself whether it really was the economy or was it that they made some bad calls?