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With the Western world’s financial system seemingly disintegrating around us, it’s no surprise that the magic formula for business buoyancy - confidence - evaporates.

In tough times it’s natural for businesses to take immediate action . But is it right to shave PR, marketing and communications from the budget? Along with the allocation for training and Belgian chocolate biscuits, marcomms is an easy target. If the late, great Bill Hicks had anything to do with it, we’d all be six feet under.

But in such uncertain times, there is a need for clear and open dialogue. Insightful comments on the topic have been shared on LinkedIn.

How would you justify the marcomms team and budget not being chucked overboard?

Do you think straight ahead, from side to side or from one corner to the opposite corner?

Well, you can now find out, care of a new online self-assessment made available by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA).

The point is, an ideal candidate for the creative, communication industries should have - as opposed to just logical linear thinking or solely creative lateral thinking - what’s known as diagonal thinking, a winning blend of the two.

The Guardian’s weekend feature on the concept included our own group’s Tim Lindsay, president of TBWA\UK & Ireland who, according to the IPA’s test results so far, is the ”most diagonal thinker in the world”, though he modestly claims to be not much good at thinking either linearly or laterally. 

All you can do is take the test and be prepared to re-think your geometry.