In the third week of a flash survey of San Francisco Bay Area CEOs, those reporting negative impacts grew only slightly, from 79% to 80%, while those who were extremely negatively affected declined from 30% to 22%.
The third week of a flash survey of San Francisco Bay Area CEOs was taken on April 2. See the previous published week 1 results and week 2 results. In week 3, negatively impacted companies grew only slightly, from 79% to 80%, while those who were extremely negatively affected declined from 30% to 22%. In week 3, the projected “new normal” is pushed back from early September to mid-September.
Bay Area business leaders are settling into the situation. A broad consensus is that we will have to grind through for six months. Leaders are getting a sense of knowing what they face and some of their worst business nightmares are proving not to be true.
The survey was completed by members of the Alliance of Chief Executives, most of whom are CEOs in the Bay Area counties. CEOs in other regions can look to this data to help make their own plans.
I think the decline in the negative indicators means that leaders feel:
- It is bad, but not getting much worse.
- That the reality of our future, grim as it is, is becoming clearer, replacing some of the fear that high uncertainty brings.
- That some CEOs are mostly done with managing the shock of this crisis and are now making progress in improving things, finding opportunities and working on them.
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. 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.
