经济萧条已变成一种威胁。欧洲债务危机、美国财政悬崖、中国经济放缓，接踵而至的坏消息足以夺去所有人的希望，隐隐地削弱令企业家们时常保持振作的天生乐观主义精神。

    顶住！事实是，即便是在今天这样动荡的经济环境下，仍然有些公司仍取得了巨大的成功。如果我们能顺势而变，实现公司的成长和成功还是很有可能的。下面三项策略可以帮助这些智慧的公司掌握主动。

    管理价值——而不是每股收益、息税折摊前收益（Ebitda）、毛利润率、收入、现金，也不是其他指标。这一点听起来显而易见，但在公司困难时，经理们很容易采取破坏价值的举措。比如，根据会计规则，研发和市场营销开支巨大，只要削减（要削减并不难），就可以公布利润增长。谁不希望当下的高利润呢？但事实上，这些成本都是投资，能带来多年的回报，削减它们就是破坏价值。

    手机芯片制造商高通（Qualcomm ）深知这一点。本轮经济衰退期间，高通的利润继2008年下降后，2009年大幅下滑——但公司在整个下行期和此后每年都在增加研发投入，有时增加幅度还不小。认为极度短视的投资者会惩罚这类做法的说法并不成立，因为高通股价已连续上涨超过了三年。

    其他公司也有不同的价值管理方式。当所在行业勉强维持，当信贷市场遭受重创时，英特尔（Intel）投入了数十亿美元建设新的工厂。可口可乐公司（Coca-Cola）从未放松过品牌建设。如今，这些公司都在蓬勃发展。

    持续发展人力资本。所有公司都声称“员工是我们最重要的资产”，但真正能做到的很少。困难时期，大多数公司都会放松对员工领导力的培养。培训需要钱，将大有潜力的经理派去发展性项目，感觉有点奢侈，或许可以等到境况好些时再说。但一流的公司都知道，人力资本是企业最有价值的资产，也是最稀缺的资源，无论什么企业都一样。看看展翅高飞的IBM吧，它在最新的《财富》全球领导力培养排行榜上名列榜首。IBM从未考虑过要缩减其企业全球服务志愿队（Corporate Service Corps），一直将来自全世界的优秀员工组队送去与一些当地组织合作，解决当地的问题。IBM前首席执行官彭明盛总是喜欢说，将IBM称作硬件、软件或服务公司是错误的，“我们是一家人的公司”。另一个例子是通用磨坊（General Mills），它在竞争激烈的食品行业依然蓬勃发展。通用磨坊著名的高要求领导力文化毫不动摇，并在Glassdoor.com最新评出的25家最难入职公司名单中排名第21位。

    Gloom has become a menace. The drumbeat of distressing news -- Europe, the fiscal cliff, China -- is enough to rob anyone of hope. It's a nasty, insidious force that's undermining the native optimism that buoys up businesspeople everywhere.

    Resist! The reality is that even in today's uncertain economy, some companies are winning big. Growth and success are always possible if we adapt to the times. Three strategies are helping smart companies dominate.

    They manage for value -- not for EPS, Ebitda, gross margin, revenue, cash, or anything else. That sounds obvious, but in difficult times, managers get seduced into value-destroying moves. For example, accounting rules say that R&D and marketing are expenses, so if you cut them -- and they're easy to cut -- reported profit jumps. Who doesn't want higher profits now? But in reality those costs are investments that pay off for years, so cutting them destroys value.

    A company that understands that is Qualcomm (QCOM), maker of the chips that power mobile phones. In the recession its profits fell in 2008, then fell sharply in 2009 -- yet the companyincreased R&D, sometimes substantially, every year through the downturn and beyond. The complaint that mindlessly short-term-obsessed investors punish such behavior just isn't valid; Qualcomm's stock has been surging for more than three years.

    Other companies manage for value in other ways. Intel (INTC) launched billions of dollars in new plant construction when its industry was on life support and credit markets were traumatized. Coca-Cola (KO) never let up on brand building. Those companies are thriving.

    They keep developing human capital. Every company claims that "people are our most important asset," but few mean it. In tough times most companies slack off on leadership development. Training costs money, and moving high-potential managers into developmental assignments feels like a luxury that can wait for better times. But the best-performing companies know that human capital truly is a business's most valuable asset, the scarcest resource, no matter what kind of business it is. Look at highflying IBM (IBM), No. 1 in our latest ranking of the world's top companies for leadership development. It hasn't even considered cutting back its Corporate Service Corps, which sends teams of promising employees around the world to work with local organizations on local problems. Former CEO Sam Palmisano liked to observe that calling IBM a hardware or software or services company was wrong in each case. "We're a people company," he said. Or consider General Mills (GIS), prospering in the fiercely competitive food industry. Its famously demanding leadership culture hasn't wavered, and the company ranks No. 21 on Glassdoor.com's new list of the 25 companies where it's hardest to get hired.