From BusinessWeek’s “The Innovation Engine: The Upside of Recession” - which innocently enough came out in March 2008 with early advice about attacking advertising market share and catapulting past slower/tighter brands during recession. In that article’s predictive wake, New Medici will pull various items that correspond with taking advantage during hard times. Interestingly, BW made note that Trader Joe’s (1958), MTV (1981) and Apple’s iPod (2001) all were born during recessions. We’ll pour into how the media and lifestyle or brand space can increase value in 2009.

On a media and brand level, so much of the industry is drafting off reduced operating expenses (think 20% or more), cut advertising budgets, little to no interactive experimentation and with many calling mobile (you know the wireless device in 9 out of 10 people’s hands) a “down” device for ‘09 (mentioned on just about every relevant panel at CES 2009).

From BW, the pull-back starts with marketing/advertising your product, then transfers into the product morale, i.e., employees or brand managers who feel there’s no support to bring their brand to market.

As Harvard Business School professor John A. Quelch noted recently, “It is well documented that brands that increase advertising during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share, and return on investment at lower cost than during good economic times.”

So instead of riding on the defensive, there’s plenty to innovate the offensive: start with picking a singular product or brand to ride out. Avoid adding excessive feature-set baggage (see the ‘Social network as Tech Challenge‘) and take your brand to the mat. As headcount freezes or deep-sixes around most corporations and startups with conservative investors, there’s a feeling that ‘playing it safe’ and simply running day-to-day operations (’operations as usual…’) will do.

Unfortunately, as BW - clearly, one of our favorites, and just about any business mag worth its diminishing recycled paper stock will tell you - it’s better to stake yourself in innovation and see where it flies.

Think of it as corporate entrepreneurialism; if you stake it and it works out, you’ve won (just sorry about the lack of real equity or ownership…). On the other hand, if you stake, it builds but takes a while or doesn’t take flight, you at least were able to give it a ride. Be the active renegade who believes devoutly. In other word(s): attack.

The ability to do sustained innovation is the one competitive edge left. Innovation is the driver of performance, growth and stock market valuation.

For all those re-pioneering the 20-year corporate contract, this is a not-for-you proposal, but for those who don’t want to spend a year showing no growth, it’s worth a gamble.

With a nod to an upcoming “Fail Safely” NM article, the ability to understand this ‘attack’ aspect, where there’s obviously downside, makes sense only if you stay narrow.

I.e., be narrow, if you cut out the less innovative product lines, you free your workload to concentrate on the product that focuses you. Think Steve Jobs, one great product at a time, maxed out in terms of intensity and improbably successful.

From Evan Williams’ blog, you know: the creator of Blogger and Twitter, on narrowing:

Focus on the smallest possible problem you could solve that would potentially be useful. Most companies start out trying to do too many things, which makes life difficult and turns you into a me-too. Focusing on a small niche has so many advantages: With much less work, you can be the best at what you do. Small things, like a microscopic world, almost always turn out to be bigger than you think when you zoom in. You can much more easily position and market yourself when more focused. And when it comes to partnering, or being acquired, there’s less chance for conflict. This is all so logical and, yet, there’s a resistance to focusing. I think it comes from a fear of being trivial. Just remember: If you get to be #1 in your category, but your category is too small, then you can broaden your scope—and you can do so with leverage.

The third tenet is be quick to backlog ideas. All of those great ideas not in the narrow point of focus belong on the GTD (Getting Things Done) “later” list. Skip back to these great ideas and touch them up, but don’t execute on them. Weak metaphor warning: pet but don’t adopt these concepts. From the well-read Ideas on Ideas blog:

Start a list [of ideas] and record them as they arise. We have a list of a couple of hundred start-up ideas that will continue to sit on the backburner until we have the time/resources to act upon them. In fact, I’ve done the same for ideasonideas, and have a list of a few hundred articles that I will someday (maybe) get to.