Write a book

Publishers are eagerly signing up potential authors for books on the economic turmoil. BusinessWeek reports on six recent deals with rumoured advances of up to $1million. The working titles are fairly predictable: Bailout Nation, House of Cards and Six Days that Shook the World for example - although presumably the last of those will have to be revised as the days stretch to weeks. The Economist reports that there are 18 books on the crisis in the works, with another dozen likely to follow. Sadly, by the time most of these books hit the shelves in 2010, many of us will have tired of reading about short-selling and credit-default swaps.

Buy a new shirt

Take note of where you buy your next cornflower blue work shirt. According to Fortune magazine, where the shirt-seller Charles Tyrwhitt opens, banks close. It certainly appears to be true of its two New York City outlets. One is at 377 Madison Avenue in what was Bear Stearns's headquarters; and the other at 745 Seventh Avenue, in the Lehman Brothers building. In London it has three shops, one of which is close to ING and Deutsche Bank. A new one is planned near to Lloyd's of London - let's hope that the insurers are one step ahead of the game before they lose the shirts off their backs.

Be creative

A lot of clichés are being banded about telling us all that we will have to be creative and innovative to survive. Few commentators are creative enough to tell us how we go about doing this effectively, though. Luckily, the Harvard Business Review offers practical advice on how managers can be creative and foster an innovative environment. The six key stages to increasing innovation are: remembering that you are not the sole fount of ideas; enabling collaboration; encouraging diversity; mapping the stages of creativity; accepting the inevitability of failure; and motivating with intellectual challenges. All of which can probably be briefly summarised as encouraging people to think for themselves.

Take a pay cut

A quarter of graduates would consider taking a pay cut of up to 5 per cent in exchange for job security for three years, a survey by reed.co.uk suggests. The survey of 1,400 new graduates also showed that 20 per cent wanted careers in marketing, media or other creative industries, compared with only 4 per cent wanting to go into finance, 2 per cent careers in banking and 3 per cent a future in accounting. More than half of respondents said that they had applied for more than five jobs since graduating and had yet to find one.

Dodge redundancy

For those in work, Management Today offers ten tips on how to stay there: 1. think strategically; 2. be happy; 3. show your hidden talents; 4. back your boss; 5. adapt; 6. anticipate others' needs; 7. be ready to swallow your pride; 8. turn up to company events; 9. picture a positive future; and 10. ... have a Plan B.

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