Bosses cautiously welcome recovery
By Paul Oboohov
In a recent article in the Financial Review, major consultants for capitalists, such as Anderson Consulting, Boston Consulting Group and Bain International, say that the bosses they advise are now about to expand.
Graham Henry, a managing partner with Anderson Consulting, was quoted as saying, "The cost reduction era is one of the fads of the past". Rickard Gardell of Bain International says, "We've found many companies have been cutting costs too deeply ... In some instances they are having to reinstate some costs to get growth."
The cutbacks in the recession affected shareholders' perceptions; managements are now worried that shareholders are "undervaluing" their shares. The consultants are being given the job of lifting the optimism of shareholders still holding out in their recession bunker mentality.
Companies are finding that expansion takes a different breed of manager than one-eyed cut, slash and burn merchants. "Visionaries" for the expansion phase seem to be hard to come by.
Gardell says, "Now companies are facing a much more difficult issue which is how they are going to grow ... Worldwide, companies are struggling to find the areas of growth ..." Colin Carter of the Boston Consulting Group said, "A lot of the questions we are getting now is where the sources of growth will come from." Indeed.