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Welcome to the December edition of 'Managing the downturn on the front line' - the latest briefing from PricewaterhouseCoopers on the effects we are seeing of the financial turmoil from across the market.

In this edition we focus on:

• Over by spring - but 2011, not 2009: As recently as a few months ago, our conversations with clients indicated that many thought the downturn would end in the spring of 2009. Today the sense is that it will last much longer...
• Putting the focus on slimming down without weakening the core: How do you respond quickly to the twists of turns of the downturn - without compromising your ability to compete and grow in the future?
• The pendulum swings away from the corporate centre - for some: With some companies responding to the downturn by reviewing the role of the corporate centre in terms of affordability and value added to the group, we highlight two countervailing points of view.
• Procurement - big is now less beautiful: With larger businesses now monitoring their supply chain keenly for signs of liquidity problems and vulnerabilities in key suppliers, putting all the procurement eggs in one basket may be looking less enticing.
• Deeper uncertainty for international mobility: The ability to move your staff across international borders looks set to be constrained by a higher tax costs burden.
• Time for a deep review of tax and transfer pricing?: Tax changes in response to the downturn mean subsidiaries may become loss-making, or the terms of intra-group transactions no longer reflect current market terms.
• Doing business with a subsidiary? Have you checked the parental relationship?: As the events of Lehmans in the UK highlighted, companies should closely examine a previously under-scrutinised risk when dealing with subsidiaries of multinationals.

December edition of 'Managing the downturn on the front line'