Executive Summary The present report deals with the analysis of competitive strategies employed by market leaders in the period of recession, and aims at establishing the value and significance of competition as an aspect of organizational functioning in the global market. The hypothesis on which the work is based is that competitiveness is one of the most important features that predefine the firm’s survival in the recession period; therefore, the ways competition is conducted, the strategies employed for the sake of achieving a competitive advantage, and the theoretical fundamentals for their evaluation are considered in the framework of the present report. The difference between common competitive strategies and the ones employed during the recession is also seen as a distinct focus of the present report. The assumption guiding the present work is based on the fact that economic activity during the crisis is conducted differently from the favorable economic environment. There are some specific market characteristics distinguishing the recession market from the normal one; slow market growth, decreasing consumer demand, growing costs and a threat of bankruptcy – all these factors produce their inevitable impact even on the most stable and prosperous companies in any market segment. Therefore, they have to respond to the changing market conditions for the sake of retaining their market share and surviving in the turbulent climate of recession. The new competitive strategies employed specifically for the sake of survival and growth in the hard economic times represent a different strategic management effort. Hence, their evaluation, as well as the estimate of their success will help identify the potentially favorable ways of conduct for firms finding themselves in a critical economic environment, and will help evaluate the true significance of pursuing a wise and balanced competitive strategy during the recession. Though there is no unified recipe for all companies, the components of a successful competitive blend have to be known for the sake of making one’s strategy sound and unique. It is very hard to grasp the scope of competitive strategies in the whole global market, so the task of the present paper was to focus on a specific market segment to evaluate the competitive efforts of three companies. The chosen sector is the high-tech industry in which the consumer demand and impact of product innovation reveal themselves to the greatest extent. The companies chosen for the analysis of competitive strategies were IBM, Intel, and Microsoft. The reason for the present choice was dictated by the stable leading position of all of them in the modern global high-tech market, the wide scope of their outreach, and the diversity of their appeal to customers, suppliers, and partners. There is no surprise in the fact that all of them also felt the disastrous impact of the recession; however, each of them employed its own responses to the critical market conditions. The present work utilizes the framework of Porter’s competitive strategy analysis as the chief way of assessment; the reason for this is that the majority of strategy classifications derives from, or is based on, the Porter’s classification. It has acquired the name of th