Sir Martin Sorrell stars in YouTube recession survival video

WPP's chief executive Sir Martin Sorrell is among the business leaders sharing advice on how to survive the recession, in a video initiative on YouTube called 'Survival of the Fastest'. The footage is part of an initiative by Google, YouTube's parent company, in association with The Daily Telegraph and the London Business School (LBS).

The idea behind the exercise is to share management insights about the recession, with specific insight on marketing during a downturn, and how it can help businesses ready for the upturn and how to sustain innovation in a downturn. The chief executive of WPP said making your way out of a downturn is "about the survival of the focused and the more thoughtful".

To date, 73 Survival of the Fastest videos have been uploaded on the website and Google UK's marketing director, Dan Cobley, said the idea came from talking with its customers at the start of the recession.

"The more enlightened ones were saying we are going to continue to invest," he said. "If you hunker down and just stop doing anything, you are going to be a weaker player when things pick up."

Watch Sir Martin Sorrell speak about sustaining innovation in the downturn:

Watch Sir Martin Sorrell give tips on retaining and developing talent in a recession: