In 2007, as the banking crisis began to reveal its ugly teeth, Haruna McWilliams and I published a paper on why clients should continue to spend during an economic downturn. Since then, we’ve had reams of IPA data and a global pandemic to deal with. As we stare down the barrel of an inflation fuelled downturn, I looked back at the article Haruna and I wrote 14 years ago to see if anything was still valid for the road ahead.
Many leaders are contemplating how to deal with a workforce that is understandably tired and fragile, while at the same time demanding they get back to the office so they can start to rebuild a sense of collective endeavour. And while employer and employee will no doubt continue to barter with their sticks and carrots, perhaps there is a role here for some kind of third party intermediation too.
