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In a sample of 2980 firm-year observations collected from three industries over the five-year period during the Russian economic crisis of 2013-2017, we demonstrate the relative effectiveness of conservative and aggressive strategies for technological leadership in affecting firm performance. Both the conservative strategy aimed at minimizing firm inputs per the set volume of outputs and the aggressive strategy aimed at maximizing the outputs per the set volume of inputs affect performance positively. Of the two alternatives, the aggressive strategy clearly outperforms the conservative one during times of crisis. Additionally, without a clear commitment to either of the strategies, firms stand to lose. We offer a novel way of assessing a firm's strategy based on the secondary data utilized in this manuscript that can be implemented by the future research.