What PR can learn from squirrels

Cutbacks are to be expected in any economic downturn, but the Great Recession has forced many companies to rethink fundamental operations in the name of survival. This includes even departments once considered sacrosanct, such as legal services.

Gone are the days of fat monthly retainers and unlimited billable hours. An increasingly common strategy among many companies is to cut departments to the bone and hire cheap individual contractors who specialize in tasks that are either beyond or beneath the skills of the full-time core staff.

For PR professionals, this is good news and bad news. It's bad for easily replaceable employees at an in-house department or a large agency, but it's good for small but nimble independent consultancies.

In either case, the key to getting work (or keeping your job) in this vicious landscape is knowing how to adapt. In other words, try being like a squirrel.

While not the highest links on the food chain, these resourceful runts do know how to survive in a variety of hostile environs. Here are some things that the PR industry can learn from these resilient creatures:

• Focus. They always have a clearly defined goal. See how they've plundered your garbage or bird feeder.
• Creativity. They are willing to try unorthodox approaches to achieve their objectives.
• Dedication. They routinely risk severe injury and even death to obtain their prize.
• Self-reliance. They have all the requisite skills and wiles to get the job done on their own.
• Efficiency. They don't get distracted or waste time with anything not related to the immediate goal (e.g., squirrel politics and rodent diva dramas).
• Adaptability. They rarely make mistakes but, when they do, they learn quickly and move on.
• Tenacity. They never give up no matter how many rocks, shoes, or boomboxes you heave at them. Check out the "Squirrel on an Impossible Reggae Mission" video.

If you need any proof that that these traits help ensure survival, count how many squirrels have turned your backyard into a sprawling live-work compound.

To survive in this economy, you must harness and embrace your inner squirrel. Otherwise, you're destined for roadkill.