I always liked factor analysis as a strategic tool. To begin with, statistics were never a strength of mine. Factor analysis is different; there is nothing arcane about it. It is simply a method of observing linear combinations of attributes or factors. They may or may not be accurate measures of interdependencies. Multiple attributes can be highly correlated with no apparent reason. And if important attributes are missed, the value of the analysis is reduced accordingly. That said, marketers often use them successfully to construct perceptual maps and other product positioning devices. At the very least, it is a neat, almost elegant, way of capturing and presenting information.

Factor analysis was a tool used cleverly by Steven Levitt, the University of Chicago economist who, with N.Y. Times journalist Stephen Dubner, co-authored Freakonomics in 2005. The subtitle of Freakonomics is apt: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. Cause and effect were turned upside down as they searched for interdependencies and correlations that to others seemed, at best, coincidental. They were able to debunk commonly held theories on many topical issues…as, for example, why the crime rates in New York City fell precipitously under the watchful eye of Rudy Giuliani.

Without being referred to specifically, factor analysis was also used by Malcolm Gladwell in his very clever new best-seller, Outliers: The Story of Success. It takes a leap of faith the size of the Grand Canyon to suggest that Bill Gates’ ultimate success was the result of accumulative advantage starting as an eighth grader when he had unlimited access to a computer, access denied even to university students. Ditto for hockey players who took advantage of the age cut in minor hockey to jump ahead of the pack.

Cultural legacy provides the basis for an even more startling leap from rice paddies to Chinese aptitude for math and deference to Korean Air pilots being the unwitting triggers to a succession of horrific crashes.

Gladwell is near-Holmsian in his ability to apply observation, deductive reasoning and inference to reach his conclusions. But he has the numbers to back up the anecdotal, if anomalous, evidence.

This is a fun book. It is, like Gladwell’s other books, breezy and easy to read. And while some of his theories might be a stretch, they aren’t as silly as, say, the Paul Revere stuff in The Tipping Point. It is replete with interesting concepts and enough terminology – divergence testing, orthogonal intelligence, concerted cultivation and mitigated speech – to wow even the stuffiest psychologist.

Like Levitt, Gladwell makes you think. Unlike Levitt, he offers up the basis, if not the blueprint, for making the most of your potential.

It’s all in the numbers. And, as you know, numbers don’t lie.

You see a lot of advice these days on how to survive the recession. Financially, the first order of the day – as always – is cash flow and that means, first and foremost, keeping your job. Investments are for later; working is for now. We need to eat.

To that end, I humbly put forward, for your consideration, five suggestions for surviving the cut. Admittedly, I am not alone in providing free advice. The First section of the December 8, 2008, issue of Fortune magazine, for example, also offered up five tips, four for keeping your job (though only three are useful) and one in case you don’t.

My credentials: I have lived through – and, indeed, helped organize – large scale layoffs. It is a troubling process – even for the most human with the best of intentions. It damages the soul, leaving scars that – in my case, at least – will never heal.

That said, I have learned things going through the process that are worth sharing. I have learned, for example, that there is a jockeying for resources. The number of cuts are usually fixed (by someone in Finance!), but the nature of the cuts is often up for debate and the specificity of the cuts, in most cases, comes down to the individual. The good news is that there are generalities that can be observed, generalities about who gets cut first, who, unbeknownst to them, balance ever-so-delicately on the bubble, and who survives without question. Even when whole departments are shut down, there are those plucked from the anonymity of the group. It is worth understanding why.

1.    Find a mentor. That is, find someone in a high place who likes you and who thinks what you do is valuable. Someone besides your boss. In the layoff planning sessions, lists of names will be bandied about. You want someone to say, “Woah! This name should not be on the list. If anything, I can find a place for him.” It will be costly. Names do not get removed from lists; they get substituted. So your benefactor will have to give up something to get something.

How do you find a benefactor?

2.    Get noticed. Most people think that lying low is the best strategy for survival. Keep your head down, they say. Never be the first one over the hill. This is incorrect. In my opinion, it is exactly the wrong strategy. Working hard, in itself, is not enough. Toiling in obscurity is not nearly enough. Starting early – like today – get involved in a high-visibility project. You have to bring something to it, of course. A specialty. A skill. One of the people I know who was designated for termination was a brilliant analyst who was always the first choice of every project team leader. Her value was widely known. She was simply in the wrong place – a department being eliminated – at the wrong time. The Finance department had no idea she was even on a list. When it became known she was to become a ‘free agent’, they happily reached out for her.

On the other hand…

3.    Avoid not-for-profit projects. Surprisingly, being a good citizen carries no weight. Working on the company’s United Way campaign, for example, pays zero dividends. Organizing the Christmas party…ditto. I have actually heard it said, to nodding faces, “Yes, she’s a fantastic person…always involved…but that has nothing to do with the business.” If you have to get involved in a project, make sure it is one that moves the business, not civilization, forward.

4.    Be self-sufficient. Don’t count on your boss to hold your hand; he has problems of his own. If he has to give you work, you are almost certainly expendable. If he has to help you get your work done, you are vulnerable. Faced with a down-sized department, your supervisor will look for a self-sufficient, self-starter whose hand he doesn’t have to hold.

5.    Do not be self-indulgent. Do not be a contrarian. These are tough times for everybody. They are about to get worse, so there will be plenty to complain about. The last thing your supervisor needs is a whiner. I had one employee who had too many principles for her own good. On several occasions, she considered suing the company for imagined wrongs. Everything down to the air she was breathing was subject to debate. Not surprisingly, so was the opportunity for advancement. When it came time to prepare ‘the list’, imagine whose name was near the top.

So there you have it: five things that will help save your job. Please note the word ‘help’. In a sweeping layoff that reaches triple and quadruple digits, even the best can be swept out to sea with the bathwater.

One more thing: these tips will be of service, cuts or no cuts. Right now, you have to think about your job but, remember, your career is just around the corner. So keep your head while looking ahead.

Good advice at any time.

Seth Godin is a marketer for whom I have the utmost respect. His head is screwed on straight. His books are easy and worthwhile reading. I do have an issue with his approach to Purple Cows and if, in the unlikely event, we should cross paths one day, I will talk to him about plain black and white cows that yield chocolate rather than regular milk or, at the very least, fat free, Omega 3 milk, directly from the udder.

Seth’s Blog, where he posts almost daily, proves that he has reached iconic status. He can be recognized by a single name like Madonna, although he is not at the point where he would be “the marketer formally known as the marketer formally known as Seth”.

In a recent post, The Marketer’s Attitude, Godin describes the perfect marketer. It would be a high energy, relentlessly positive person. It would be someone self-motivated and self-sufficient, able not only to visualize complex projects but also to carry them through to fruition. He or she could engage strangers and embrace ambiguity. He sees the down streams and the downsides of any plan and adjusts accordingly. And so on.

There was something missing from his description, however. The perfect marketer must also be the perfect politician. The astute marketer knows that, in a perfect world, all things are possible. But in a highly volatile world, where people see their investments and imagine their lives going down the rabbit hole, where Boards are insecure and CEOs intractable and budget cuts inescapable, not all things are possible. Indeed, most things – even the small things and especially the right things – require a great deal of personal conviction and much cleverness to gain the collaboration of those in high places if projects are to ever see the light of day.

The marketer must know how to properly package a proposal, how to wrap it in the context of necessity, how to make it risk-aversive, politically-sensitive, environmentally-friendly. He must show it as right for the times and right for the customer. He must know how to segment a project so that it is not a capital intensive venture requiring a long-term commitment from skittish shareholders, but a series of small bite-sized chunks with quick wins and easily quantifiable gains to the bottom line. He must know what to say when and to whom, how to recognize windows that are slightly ajar and how to contain disappointment and move on when they are not.

This is not a cynical view of the corporate world. It is a practical one, reflecting the times and the importance of timing. Selling starts not when a product or a program is ready to launch. It begins when it the next most perfect thing is just a gleam in the perfect marketer’s eye.