Forrester: The Best Defense For Business Leaders During The 2023 Economic Downturn Is A Proactive Offense
January 26 2023 - 9:45AM
Business Wire
To navigate this downturn, CEOs will need to
simultaneously reduce spending while continuing to invest in their
organizations’ long-term strategy
According to Forrester’s (Nasdaq: FORR) “Navigating The 2023
Downturn” research, the current global downturn will unfold in ways
unlike any economic decline previously experienced. While prior
recessions have followed a boom-bust cycle, the 2023 downturn
immediately follows a pandemic that has already disrupted business
models and forced organizations to pivot their business strategy.
Additionally, multiple factors contribute to the complexity of this
downturn, including inflation, energy costs, supply chain
challenges, regional conflicts, and changing worker demographics.
These factors will uniquely combine across regions and industries,
ensuring that each country will experience it differently.
New research from Forrester offers proactive measures to help
business leaders across technology, marketing, sales, customer
experience, digital, and security and risk effectively manage this
downturn. Specific guidance for CEOs includes:
- Stay focused on long-term strategy by making smart cuts and
smart investments. When facing prior recessions, many leaders
imposed cuts across the board. This brute-force approach is likely
to hurt more than help, however. Many leaders also assume that, as
they make cuts, they can’t pursue new investments, but in reality,
this moment is ripe for CEOs to do exactly that. In addition to
establishing a customer-obsessed objective and then making smart
cuts with that objective in mind, leaders should move forward by
investing in technologies that can improve customer experience,
employee experience, and productivity, even as others choose to
stand still.
- Put talent at the center of the long-term strategy.
Currently, 54% of US workers and 43% of both UK and French workers
believe that their organization will make personnel decisions in a
careful and human-centric way. When considering cuts, CEOs should
identify the individual contributions and skills that will take
their company into the future and invest in a talent intelligence
program that thoroughly tracks worker skills and performance
capacities.
- Choose the right customers to obsess over. During this
downturn, CEOs must realize that it’s equally important to decide
which customers not to serve as it is who to serve now and in the
future. Ultimately, underperforming markets lead to underutilized
operations, neglected technical debt, and the waste of valuable
resources that can be aligned to better opportunities.
“This economic downturn is unlike any other recession businesses
have experienced so far,” said Sharyn Leaver, chief research
officer at Forrester. “As a result, business leaders can’t rely on
what has worked previously. They will need to think differently and
adjust their products, processes, and customer experiences. This
research has been designed to help business leaders make smart,
growth-minded choices that support their organizations’ long-term
strategy.”
Resources:
- Read Forrester’s report, The CEO’s Guide To Navigating A
Turbulent 2023.
- Explore Forrester’s budget guidance for 2023, outlining where
business leaders should invest, divest, and experiment to ensure
long-term success.
About Forrester
Forrester (Nasdaq: FORR) is one of the most influential research
and advisory firms in the world. We help leaders across technology,
customer experience, digital, marketing, sales, and product
functions use customer obsession to accelerate growth. Through
Forrester’s proprietary research, consulting, and events, leaders
from around the globe are empowered to be bold at work — to
navigate change and put their customers at the center of their
leadership, strategy, and operations. Our unique insights are
grounded in annual surveys of more than 700,000 consumers, business
leaders, and technology leaders worldwide; rigorous and objective
research methodologies, including Forrester Wave™ evaluations; 100
million real-time feedback votes; and the shared wisdom of our
clients. To learn more, visit Forrester.com.
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20230126005152/en/
Ira Kantor Forrester Research ikantor@forrester.com
Forrester Research (NASDAQ:FORR)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Forrester Research (NASDAQ:FORR)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024