Buying time: The role of professional services firms during a crisis
Faced with not one, but multiple, simultaneous crises, senior executives are moving more slowly when they know they really need to speed up. That creates opportunities for professional services firms—but for some more than others.
Our research has shown a significant drop in the confidence employees have in their senior leadership team. In our quarterly client survey, 22% of respondents primarily attributed their general lack of business confidence to poor leadership at the top of their organisation, compared to just 3% in Q1 (see figure one). A slow response to the uncertain business environment was their particular concern. These respondents weren’t middle-ranking managers, the people that typically (and understandably) resent the extent to which their bosses expect them to get things done in difficult circumstances: An even higher proportion of CxOs—25%—felt the same way.