Tough Times

What goes up, must come down—so the saying goes. This could be used to describe the business climate during 2008 in any number of ways. In one way, both the going up and the coming down had significant negative effects. Corey Reardon, president and CEO of AWA Alexander Watson Associates, noted that the first half of 2008 was clearly identified with steadily increasing raw material prices, driven by unprecedented increases in oil and energy costs, with record high oil prices by mid-2008. "During the second half of 2008, the reverse was true," he says. "Oil prices fell, and raw material prices stabilized and began to fall. Also, and most significantly, during the second half of 2008 the impact of the economic crisis affected market growth dramatically. A softening and almost static third quarter was succeeded by rapid and unprecedented declines in market demand in Q4, and into 2009."