Renowned economist Alan Beaulieu, President of ITR Economics, provided his economic assessment in a recent webinar, “Managing Uncertainty: How to Handle Black Swans in the Economy”, April 15, 2020.
He said the U.S. industrial economy will rebound relatively quickly, with the U.S. GDP reaching bottom in June 2020, but then peaking in June 2021. Below are eight takeaways from Beaulieu’s presentation.
- The large amount of stimulus money will help the economy
- Unemployment rate won’t reach double digits
- GDP will peak in June 2021 to 3.6%
- The forecasted 2022-23 recession is no longer expected
- A resurgence in ‘near-sourcing’ by firms, not out-sourcing will occur
- Be patient, the stock market will bounce back in 1-2 years
- China is waiting to source (orders) from the U.S. and the E.U.
- Companies need to focus on marketing
Beaulieu stated, “I firmly believe that some level of marketing has to go on, and now’s a good time to be designing products for the future. … Marketing needs to be on the front end, helping to design what the customer wants and knowing what the customer is thinking so that we can be there (in the future).”
Medical Market Consulting agrees with Beaulieu and in fact, does just that. We assist medical device and healthcare companies design products their customers want by understanding their customer’s (hospitals, physicians, nurses) needs.
Even in the midst of the pandemic, we are conducting in-depth interviews, on-line surveys and bulletin board focus groups, to assist our clients in new product development, strategic planning and product launch.
Reference:
Collaborative Robotics Trends, “8 reasons to stay positive about US economy during COVID-19 crisis”, Paul Heney, April 22, 2020.
