As the recession barometer inches towards a possible perfect storm, opinion remains mixed: Some “see” captains are dry-docking for the winter, while others, emulating famed Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton, will show brilliant leadership in facing the icy seas ahead.

After reporting on “surprising resilience in the broader economy” on Friday, the New York Times yesterday provided a range of future directions for the economy. Morgan Stanley Asia chairman Stephen S. Roach (“You Can Almost Hear It Pop”) and Berkeley business professor Laura Tyson (“Bet the House on It”) see darkness in their sextants, while economists and authors Marcelle Chauvet and Kevin Hassett just say “The Facts Say No.” The best perhaps, is James Grant of Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, whose opine opens with “Economists cannot reliably predict recessions.”

What to do? According to University of California-Irvine business professor Peter Navarro, wisely navigating recessionary shoals can actually “offer up a veritable cornucopia of profitable opportunities.” Author of the best-selling investment book If It’s Raining in Brazil, Buy Starbucks, Navarro’s The Well-Timed Strategy, published by Wharton Business School last year, cites numerous real-life examples where modern executive teams strategically and tactically managed—or failed to manage—the various recessionary and expansionary phases of the business cycle.

Do you cut capital expenditures to protect cash flow or spend during a recession for optimal positioning when recovery comes? What is the “bullwhip effect”? Across industries and all phases of business, find out how your “master cyclist” peers sailed or sank in this persuasive read.

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