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To Survive Uncertainty, Companies Must Recommit to Identifying the Right Customers

May 20, 2025
Richard Ross/Getty Images

In the last five or so years, corporate responses to a challenging macroeconomic environment have been dominated by two themes: cost cuts and price increases. This isn’t surprising; economic turbulence often triggers short-term, reactive thinking as executives fixate on immediate concerns like meeting or beating quarterly earnings expectations. Today, as tariffs have thrown company plans into turmoil and forecasts of economic growth have become muted, it’s likely that executives will turn again to those tools.

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