Here's what an international firm pointed out for those impressed by China's improving COVID-19 situation: “Asian cities such as Shanghai have returned to the office, however, the speed at which that occurred is thanks to their data-rich, privacy-light societies which used tech to track movements of early cases and isolate these people. Western countries simply cannot adapt to these measures."
Corporate advisory firms, legal practices and transaction teams are generally seeing a conservative reaction to deal flow. Execution risk and integration risk post-deal are seen as high in this climate, however, some are determined to see deals through and stepping up pressure on their advisers and counter-parties to do so.
Fund managers are facing time allocation challenges as they split their time and teams across functions, market responses, and team COVID-19 working arrangements. Some are now considering giving, or giving, marketing teams more responsibility over COVID-19 communication as their other work naturally has slowed.
Some investors are selling all their assets at any price they can get, fuelled by the fear of economies going into lock down. Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) providers say they’re performing as expected and that market making has been maintained to accommodate increase in trading volumes.
CEOs and leadership teams are responding to COVID-19 through localised people management measures and business continuity plans:
I’ll end with commentary from the international networking firm I quoted at the top.
“Your clients are going to be consumed with keeping their own businesses alive. But maybe you can help them think of things which will help their communities. And communicate them! Not just to make your clients look good (although it will), but also so others can copy.”
This is an excerpt from one of our client COVID-19 CEO response briefings. For more COVID-19 response resources and guidance, visit our COVID-19 Response page.
If you’d like to discuss adjusting your communication strategy for the current times, please call us or fill out our contact form here.