In a flash survey of San Francisco Bay Area CEOs taken on March 19, just a few days after the USA’s first shelter-in-place order, 75% of the CEOs report negative impacts while 9% are being positively impacted. Collectively, they believe it will be 4.9 months before we return to “normalcy.”

The survey was completed by members of the Alliance of Chief Executives, most of whom are CEOs in the six Bay Area counties who were issued the shelter-in-place order on March 17. The State of California just expanded this order statewide on March 20, and more than likely, other states will follow. CEOs in other regions can look to this data to help make their own plans.

How is COVID-19 situation impacting your business?

How has your business changed during the past week?

When do you project your business will return to somewhat “normal”?

Over 300 companies were asked to participate in this survey, and these CEOs lead companies in virtually every industry and range from early-stage growth companies to midsized companies to global public companies. However, most of the businesses surveyed are midsized companies in the $20 to $200 million dollar revenue range. The survey was conducted via Emojot, an enterprise-grade customer experience management platform.

I am based in the San Francisco Bay Area region as well and have been issuing regular articles to guide CEOs in this difficult time. Our most recent posting walks through how to do scenario planning and suggests a full financial proforma with the best case being a 4-week business hiatus, the medium case being a 4-month business hiatus, and the worst case being an 8 month hiatus.

Business leaders have a critical role to play in keeping their employees safe while providing employment, products and services that will be vital to our country’s recovery.