Witness the fate of some manufacturers of plasma televisions, which have been forced to exit the business under the double whammy of the downturn and steady improvements in LCD and LED sets.
It is to accept there may be a downturn in results before improvement comes.
In stark comparison, skiing, which enjoyed a resurgence amidst golf's downturn, coupled dramatically user-friendly improvements in equipment with more sophisticated and standardized instruction to greatly accelerate the learning process.
This means the improvement in these indicators is a result of a cyclical downturn in Europe, rather than structural improvements.
The report concluded: "Although quality, well-paid flexible working can be of great benefit to workers, particularly those with caring responsibilities, there are indications that flexible arrangements designed with the worker in mind were few during the downturn and have seen limited improvement since".
"The cost-cutting during the recent downturn has led to margin improvement, which is resulting in outperformance," says David Joyce, media analyst at Miller Tabak.
But with Spain in the grips of the 2008 economic downturn, the money earmarked for the improvements failed to materialise, and the site remained vacant, cordoned off from the rest of the city by a chainlink fence.
Of course, 18 months into the worst downturn since the Depression, any signs of improvement are relative, and hope does not translate into jobs or profits.
If the improvement in productivity fades, any downturn could be worsened, and could lead to continued inflation pressures even as the economy throttles back.
She said that the industrial survey for Europe pointed to a slowdown similar to the one in 2003, when there were several quarters of minimal economic improvement, rather than a sharp downturn.
