UK executives don’t think their companies are equipped to cope with recession fallout

Few UK executives believe their companies have the right skills and experience to cope with the fallout from the financial crisis and economic downturn, research has revealed.

In a survey of more than 800 board-level managers by Egon Zehnder International, an executive headhunter, just 5% said they were confident their businesses had the right internal resources to meet future challenges. Even fewer respondents (2%) said their businesses had sufficient “customer focus”.

Andrew Roscoe, managing partner of Egon Zehnder International in London, said: “The ongoing crisis appears to have quite severely shaken the confidence of many business leaders, who are questioning whether they have the internal skills and capabilities to adjust to a new world order.”

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Levels of concern in the UK are particularly high, perhaps reflecting uncertainty over the political and regulatory response, Roscoe added.

As governments attempt to cut budget deficits and encourage fragile economic recoveries, respondents’ main concern was the continuing financial crisis and the response from legislators.