Can small firms shrug off their recession trauma?

An interesting short article in the Telegraph contains a suggestion that many businesses, particularly the small ones, are struggling to shake off the experience of surviving the recession.

The argument basically runs like this. the recession necessitated drastic action - cost cutting, cash conservation, postponed investment, redundancies, cuts in capacity. the result - firms that have become locked into a defensive mode, unwilling to take risks or to challenge the way they do business. there must be a lot of truth in this and the short-term future is hardly likely to look great, particularly for firms relying on demand from the public sector.

An interesting discussion point for students would be to identify ways in which businesses might be able (or encouraged) to shake off the psychological effects of the recent recession. how can management challenge existing business model? What opportunities are there to exploit for firms that have survived?