Summer, for most of us, is a time to recharge our batteries, to relax, to enjoy some calm before the demands of life pick up again.  Unfortunately, investors have made that a good deal harder recently as they collectively removed over a trillion dollars in value from financial markets over the course of a few days.

Why the sudden volatility?  Consumers haven’t suddenly changed spending behaviors, nor have business customers. And suppliers look healthier than in some time, beating earnings estimates and sitting on plenty of cash. Credit availability has drastically improved. Inflation is hardly threatening.

The answer seems to lie in the health of developed economies. While many appeared to be on the mend for the past year (albeit slowly), it’s become clear the recovery is far more fragile than was thought, especially in the US.  We’re not in a recession, but we’re also not in a recovery that is self-sustaining.

In such an unstable place, most signals (economic data) are too weak or confusing for investors to proceed with confidence.  Even small pieces of information have outsized impact and prices gyrate.  Markets, after all, are just groups of people trying to discern future value and in this case they are struggling.

So, what are executives doing in the face of this volatility?   Read More »

As economies went into freefall roughly two years ago, executives across different functional areas converged on a short set of priorities.  In fact, you might say just one priority – survival.  That meant shedding costs and doing anything possible to drive cash flow, quickly.  But as markets pulled back from the brink, functional heads returned to a (more normal) pursuit of their individual agendas, from social media adoption to staff development.

As we talk to heads of Sales, Marketing and Communications about 2011, I see a swing back to handling a common enemy – this time, ongoing uncertainty.  Uncertainty isn’t terribly attractive to most, but executives seem to be accepting it as part of the new normal and are trying to figure out ways to live alongside it.  That presents a little differently depending on your role in the organization. 

• In Sales for example, the problem is that deals are getting “stuck” with customers whose response to uncertainty is indecision. But it looks like most sales teams aren’t doing enough to make deals easy for customers, abandoning them prematurely in the sales cycle.
• For marketers, the challenge lies in figuring out – and then using to their advantage – changes in the way customers think about purchasing (triggered by the uncertainty customers face).  Coping mechanisms like in-the-moment comparison and peer feedback are driving psychology few companies fully understand, but must.
• Communicators are trying to help their organizations deal with uncertainty.  Specifically, as companies try to become more agile and responsive, the premium on moving information and aligning the organization increases.  But those are new-ish areas to most Communications teams.

How is uncertainty affecting you and your organization?  What are you planning to do about it?  Our research makes it clear that early movers in moments like this stand to gain disproportionately. I hope you’re one of them.