ATLANTA, Ga. September 14, 2020 – Despite the World Health Organization estimate of COVID-19 deaths approaching one million, confirmed cases nearing 29 million and global economies in tatters, the sun will come up tomorrow.
That’s the message from Karen Greenbaum, head of the world’s largest association of executive recruiters.
“I’m actually hearing of business picking up already,” she told a virtual audience of recruiting specialists, “because the work must go on.”
Greenbaum is the CEO of the Association of Executive Search and Leadership Consultants, an organization of 16,000 professionals in over 70 countries. She spoke at the annual conference of Cornerstone International Group.
I’m very optimistic about executive search for the longterm. Even in a time where your markets may have high unemployment, the need for top talent hasn’t changed.”
Greenbaum cited areas where the destruction caused by the pandemic had forced change that was already waiting to happen.
“We’ve been talking about digital transformation for a long time, but a number of companies didn’t get it and didn’t do it,” she said. “And then they got hit with COVID and found out that if they weren’t virtual, they were in big trouble
We’ve also been talking about the need for agile leadership for a long time. Now people realize that if they didn’t have agile leaders, they were stuck because people had to pivot very, very quickly.”
Many countries still face the threat of second and third waves of the virus, but Greenbaum remains optimistic.
“I don’t know if we have hit the bottom yet,” she concluded, “but we’ve learned to deal with a different kind of work environment.
“I think things will pick up as we understand how to deal with the current normal”
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