Google exec's 'most important lesson' from navigating the Great Recession is smart advice today

• Google executive Ruth Porat worked at Morgan Stanley during the 2008 financial crisis.
• The experience provided her with important lessons, she said in a recent podcast interview.
• Porat said the most important is to identify your weaknesses ahead of time and "fortify" oneself.

Google executive Ruth Porat learned a thing or two from working through the Great Recession.

Her biggest piece of advice? Figure out where you're vulnerable and "fortify" against it before you're in crisis mode.

Deeply embedded in Morgan Stanley during the recession, Google executive Ruth Porat said her experiences at the investment bank provided her with a playbook for hard times.

"There were a lot of really important lessons that came out of it, and when I got to Google, I was asked about them — which struck me as a bit odd, because Google had only seen sunny days," Porat said during an "In Good Company" podcast interview. "And I think, really importantly, the lessons are good for good times and bad."

Porat began her career at Morgan Stanley in 1987, spending 22 years in its investment banking division before serving as the bank's CFO from 2010 to 2015.

During the 2008 financial crisis, Porat said she helped advise the US Treasury through the bailouts of insurance giant AIG and mortgage-financers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

As fears of a possible recession loom large on Wall Street, advice from those who've weathered them in the past may prove increasingly relevant today. Some of Porat's recommendations are applicable to the individual — not just the multinational conglomerate.

"The most important lesson from the crisis is to identify your greatest source of vulnerability ahead of time and protect against it," she said.

For businesses navigating the financial crisis, that weakness in question was liquidity, according to Porat.

"I think a really important lesson for everyone is to do that question — what is your greatest source of vulnerability?" she said. "You can protect against it early on, but not in the moment."

In the case of institutions — Porat said it's best to load up on talent with the ability to take a broad view of things.

"Make sure you have a team with horizontal vision, because you've got to connect the dots across a lot of different issues," she said.

And perhaps most crucially — there's no easy way out of a brutal situation, Porat said. It's best to just grit one's teeth and triage your way through it.

"I think the other really important lesson was that there are no good choices in a crisis," Porat said. "And so go for the least worst and just keep moving, because standing still can actually just amplify, magnify — and you're not going to end up with a good solution in any event. By definition, you're in a crisis."

Afterward her time at Morgan Stanley, Porat transitioned into the same role at Google. Today, she serves as president and chief investment officer at the search giant and its parent company, Alphabet.