Honda’s decision to shut down production during two months of 2009 but retain all their talented people for a future upturn is a smart decision.

For some time I have been advocating that to shed staff to save money saves one asset, money, but it reduces another asset, the talent contained within the people.

In the last downturn both Hershey and Pilsbury adopted similar tactics and came out of the downturn faster and stronger than their competitors.

I wonder how many other companies might look at this tactic and copy it?