C EO ROU NDTAB LE
LEADING THE FUTURE OF WORK
New normal? We’re not there yet. CEOs share perspectives on getting through the tail end of the Covid crisis—and prepping for recovery. BY JENNIFER PELLET FACING A GLOBAL EMERGENCY OF epic proportions back in March of 2019, companies rose to the challenge. Measures to safeguard employees were instituted, protective gear disseminated, tech tools adopted. Leaders looked for—and found—creative ways to engage with and motivate their newly remote workforces. Inspiring stories, from successfully pivoting toward new opportunities to keeping geographically dispersed teams collaborating and engaged, were shared. In short, amid the crisis, a can-do attitude prevailed. Through the summer, whether working on-site ensconced in personal protective equipment or at home with kids and pets underfoot, that sentiment “I’m not sure we held, agreed CEOs gathered for a Chief were built to sprint Executive roundtable underwritten for as long as this by PURE Insurance. But with winter sprint will last.” approaching and yet another Covid —Ross Buchmueller, surge looming, the adrenalin bolstering Corporate America began to run out. As CEO, PURE Carmine Di Sibio, chairman of EY, put it, Insurance “Right around Labor Day, a switch went on with people in terms of, ‘Working from my summer house has been fine, but I want to get back to normal.’ ” Ross Buchmueller, CEO of PURE Insurance, described it as sprinting a marathon. His company headed into the pandemic in mid-merger, closing a deal with Tokio Marine Holdings in February and spending the subsequent months operating at top speed. “It struck me fairly early on that if we stayed together and connected, we could really take
advantage of what was occurring,” he said. “We did daily emails, weekly town halls and, by June, new business inquiries were up well over 30 percent. So, we felt that we had managed through exceptionally. But while the business continues to be strong and healthy, it’s really hard to sustain culture, engagement and productivity at the rate we’re going. I’m not sure we were built to sprint for as long as this sprint will last.” With no firm end date in sight, CEOs are grappling with a meaty challenge: managing today’s twists and turns while also developing the agility and resilience that will enable their companies to thrive in the new normal—whatever and whenever that may be. As Jeff Sonnenfeld, Lester Crown professor of management at the Yale School of Management and Chief Executive columnist put it, “How will you lead in this environment and not be led? How do you prepare your workforce to be more digital, more responsive and do so in a way that establishes real buy-in from everybody?” The Here and Now Many CEOs cited a supportive working environment as the most crucial element of sustaining their companies and cultures through the pandemic. PwC Chairman Tim Ryan described aggressively messaging employees about the physical and mental health support available to them. At the height of the disruption, he drove the point home personally by sharing with PwC’s 55,000 employees that three of his six children had accessed the firm’s mental health
CHIEFEXECUTIVE.NET / WINTER 2021 / 57
