Described by Trading Economics as the degree of optimism that consumers have about the state of the economy and their personal financial situation, consumer confidence is a measure of how people feel about the stability of their incomes, which in turn determines their spending activity.

If consumer confidence is high, consumers buy more, boosting economic expansion. If confidence is low, they tend to save more than they spend, prompting the contraction of the economy.

A month-to-month diminishing trend in consumer confidence suggests that most consumers now have a negative outlook on their ability to find and retain good jobs.

Business confidence is not faring any better, with the SA Chamber of Commerce and Industry commenting that business people are right not to be confident in South Africa, or any countries they do business with in 2012.

According to the chamber's economist, Richard Downing: "Everything is low, things could get worse and I think they will."

With some analysts arguing that it could take up to five years for the world economy to recover, it is time for innovative thinkers, risk-takers and difference-makers to step up to the plate.

Author and management guru Tom Peters has called for our generation to re-imagine all of our institutions, private and public.

He argues that, given the dire state in which we find ourselves, every enterprise (and individual) needs a formal "forgetting strategy".

This entails being forceful and systematic about identifying and then dumping yesterday's baggage, because we are about to acquire new baggage.

Peters adds that people must resist the impulse to over-analyse.

"We put too much emphasis on analysis, too little emphasis on getting on with getting on."

So how does this help organisations that are facing a challenging future?

According to Innovation Excellence, the time we are in now is "geographically, economically and emotionally speaking" when innovators can, and must, make their mark.

Peters and I agree with this view: innovation is the way forward. All true innovation comes as a reaction to real action (a trial, prototype, experiment).

Peters's mantra is "Do now, think later. At the least, you'll have something to think about since you've just done something!"

He further contends that all quests worth undertaking require audacity, willpower and persistence. "One needs the sheer audacity to challenge conventional wisdom, accept the lumps upon lumps associated therewith - and persist until victory."

In short, it is time to re-imagine or perish. These are not times for the faint of heart. They call for the maximum from each one of us. For the sake of ourselves, our communities, our children, our world.

No right answers or certain rules are on the horizon. We must make it up as we go along.

As Peters cautions: "As for a blessed hiatus, forget about it."

• Tyler is CEO of the Business Results Group. Tom Peters will be in South Africa on November 8 at Vodaworld in Midrand. For more information on the, visit www.theprogressconference.com