You might wonder, why would you take any kind of risk during a downturn? Why would we change horses, try anything new, introduce a new technology, or make any changes whatsoever? Good question, and I'm glad you asked.
One of the things that proves true again and again is that businesses act in cycles. Some group of people makes a bad judgment call, which screws things up for a bunch of people...in the short term. A bubble bursts, a greedy executive gets busted, a new administrator introduces new taxes and non-productive spending at the worst possible time.
However, the market as a whole is made of really smart people. They get tired of hiding under a table worrying about how the sky is going to fall, and figure out how to get back in the game. However, there's always a lag time between panic and rebound.
What do you do while you're waiting for things to come back? Use the time well. Innovate. Come up with new ways to lower expense and increase your service capability. Retire an old broken down system with a new way to deliver information. Find new ways to please your customer, without spending a huge amount of capital.
Then, things start to come back. The innovation is in place, you are ready to take market share while everybody else is just starting to crawl out from under their desk. You've made the adjustment, and are ready to go.
Get out from under your table. The sky may be dark for a while, but it's not going to fall in on you. Figure out a way to position for advantage when the darkness breaks.
Go for it.
