Experian's insight

An interesting interview with Experian's chief financial officer (that's finance director in English) unearths a couple of nuggets.
As the man who counts the beans at a multinational stock exchange company, Paul Brooks has to measure his words very carefully.
But you'd reckon someone in a key position at a business that has its own team of economists and analysts would have something interesting to say.
Beneath the coded language, he has.
First, he reminds me that what we're going through isn't just a credit crunch: this is a normal economic downturn that has been tipped into recession by the credit crunch.
So at least a part of what we're going through was going to happen anyway. But the crunch turned it into a uniquely challenging financial shock.
Second, having made cuts to the business early because it was hit by the crunch early (its main customers were banks trying to sell more credit), it will have to measure any further cutbacks very carefully.
In an economic crisis like this and in a position like his he cannot rule out the possibility of further job cuts at the business.
But in a telling phrase, he tells me: "We don't want to damage the business's ability to operate."
Like a lot of companies, Experian has been balancing the need to keep tight control on costs with a need to make sure it can still perform strongly – especially when things look up.
Similar sentiments came this week from Peter Stephens, the man who runs the John A Stephens Builders' Merchants next to the Inland Revenue at Castle Meadow. So forget some of the clichés about sackings – businesses do not like making people redundant.
It's clear that Paul Brooks sees no end to the recession this year. He isn't alone: while the economy may bottom out this year, it's looking increasingly likely that it won't start going up again until 2010.