Environment Analyst’s Liz Trew presents a roundup of AEC Advisors' recent online CEO Forum focused on business strategy and outlook in the 'great lockdown’ of 2020.
Over 450 others signed up to attend the meeting, representing annual architecture, engineering and consulting (AEC) industry revenues of $110bn.
A panel-based discussion was led by Andrej Avelini, president, AEC Advisors; also featuring Alex Rothchild, acting CEO, North America, Arcadis; Iver Skavdal, president, US, GHD; and Chris Rayasam, president & CEO, MurraySmith.
The panel offered their response to AEC Advisors’ latest survey statistics, which look at how firms in the US and global sector are dealing with the impacts of COVID-19. They also provided insights into how companies are adjusting financial expectations and strategies to cope with the new norms and ensure they are laying solid foundations for the ‘other side’.
Members can download the full report here
This is the second in the series of leadership briefings based on the CEO Forum 'COVID-19 response' discussions; the first may be downloaded from here.
Key takeaways from the latest panel include:
- "Be prepared to see multiple waves of impacts across different sectors and geographies the longer the crisis goes on for"
- "The need for a diversified portfolio geographically was a key learning from the great recession a decade ago"
- "In these types of economies be careful about going after contracts which you can’t win and of staff being tempted to pursue anything that moves"
- "There’s still a need to look at actions to set us up for long-term growth on the other side"
- "There are going to be unprecedented M&A opportunities for the very brave"
- "There will be a ‘sorting out’ of firms in the industry through clients seeing which providers have the capabilities, systems and financial strength to support them"
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If you are not an EA corporate member but wish to obtain a copy of this briefing then please get in touch with Lisa Turner (e: lisa.turner@environment-analyst.com; t: +44 (0) 1743 387 050)