You are Cristina, 52, CEO of Solatec Servicios, a Catalan industrial-services firm (€95M revenue, 250 employees). The Spanish economy is four quarters into an extended energy crisis + slow recession. You have been managing through it for a year. Your CFO's latest forecast says there are six more quarters of this — probably.
The situation
This is not an acute crisis — it is a slow, grinding one. Order book is down 22% from the 2024 peak. Energy-input costs +47% YoY. Customers (food processors, light manufacturers) are stretching payment cycles from 60 to 88 days on average. Three competitors have already laid off staff publicly; one is being shopped to a PE firm at a deep discount.
The pattern is sectoral, not company-specific. The Bank of Spain's Q4 forecast: GDP growth slows to 0.4% in 2027, recovers to 1.6% in 2028, "normalizes" thereafter. The energy story is structural, not transient. Your year-1 response was tactical (cost discipline, working-capital tightening, no investment). You bought time. Now you have to commit to a posture for the next 18 months. The board meeting is in 3 weeks.