Press Releases

2008 Oct 13

UK BOSSES ILL-EQUIPPED TO DEAL WITH DOWNTURN

• 81 per cent of business people believe that UK bosses have little or no experience of how to deal with a downturn
• 74 per cent think that many companies are reluctant to communicate the full extent of the financial downturn they are facing
• Yet 88 per cent agree that companies are more likely to recover confidence by disclosing bad news early and in full
• And 69 per cent think that some companies are using the current climate as an excuse to cover up problems caused by management’s mistakes

People working in business are becoming increasingly concerned over the ability of their bosses to deal with the worsening economic climate due to a lack of experience, according to research by executive leadership and development consultancy The Aziz Corporation.

The survey of 200 business people found that 81 per cent think that the economy has been booming for so long that senior bosses have little or no experience of how to deal with a major slowdown, with over 60 per cent estimating that less than one in ten of their current management held senior positions at the time of the last recession in the 1990s.

Professor Khalid Aziz comments:

“It is perhaps not a matter of chance that the recently-humbled HBOS had the youngest management team in the banking sector, with its youthful Chief Executive having never been through a recession in banking, and is now selling out to a bank with much more experienced leadership.”