I spent last week working with my executive groups on an exercise with two purposes. The first purpose was to examine this most recent recession and look for lessons learned. The second purpose was to light a fire moving forward.

In 2005, we first learned of the impending recession, its timing, depth and breadth. My resource for this warning was Brian and Alan Beaulieu at EcoTrends. In January 2007, EcoTrends confirmed their forecast, before we retreated to the basement nailing down the hatches.

In that meeting, Alan Beaulieu, to create some hope (or an economist’s attempt at humor), spoke about the recovery. “There will come a time,” he started, “when we will give you the ALL CLEAR. It will not feel like the ALL CLEAR. It will still feel like nuclear winter. But we will tell you.”

And that signal has appeared. NOW is the time. NOW is the time to be aggressive. NOW is the time to take market share.

“There will be no double-dip,” they confirmed two weeks ago.

Your competition is still on its heels, whining and complaining about the economy. Now is the time to open the hatches, mobilize, expand your tolerance for risk.

Your competition still sees the world in nuclear winter. Now is the time to strike.

Think about your target in 2013. What steps do you need to take?