So, one week in, how is this "year from hell" 2008 going for you? Share price heading south as consumers start cutting back? Perhaps your senior team is even now planning a series of belt-tightening measures, bracing the organisation for the next miserable few months.

Anyone reckless enough to suggest that a new strategic vision might help navigate the dark days ahead is unlikely to get a warm response. It is time to take action, colleagues will say, not reflect or speculate. The patron saint of this approach is IBM's former chief executive Lou Gerstner, who famously arrived at the then troubled firm in 1993 declaring that the last thing the company needed was a new vision.