Over 20 years ago, George Stalk predicted that time could become the most powerful competitive weapon and management tool for U.S. companies. He was right. By inspecting their processes and organizations through the lens of time, companies found new ways to compete, grow, and invigorate themselves.

David Michael, one of the authors of BCG's annual report on global challengers, discusses how these companies are responding to the crisis and the strategies they are using to continue their growth.

BCG's founder Bruce Henderson argued that prices could be lower and profit could be higher if all competitors would avoid or extricate themselves from cash traps—products that absorb more money in required investment than they will ever generate in revenues.

Only a diversified company with a balanced portfolio can use its strengths to capitalize on growth opportunities. The balanced portfolio includes stars whose high share and high growth assure the future, cash cows that supply funds for that future growth, and question marks to be converted into stars with the added funds.

For low-cost companies, losing a modest amount of market share may seem less costly than meeting a price concession of a minor competitor. Unfortunately, more and more share must be given up over time to maintain price. Eventually, companies that pursue this approach will be left with no way to maintain profitability.

BCG's founder Bruce Henderson outlined one his many ideas that transformed how companies thought about business strategy: Across industries, costs decline by a characteristic amount—about 20 to 30 percent—each time accumulated experience is doubled. But he also cautioned that such declines require management to force costs down as volume expands.