Its not all downcast at downturn event
On 20th May 2009 over 80 Finance Directors came together at the London Chamber of Commerce to meet and discuss practical actions that could help their organisations prosper in a downturn. Interestingly of those surveyed, 41% felt the upturn would come as soon as 2010.
Guest speakers included Jon Moulton the Managing Partner of UK-based private equity firm Alchemy Partners, Colin Stanbridge the Chief Executive of the London Chamber of Commerce and Steve Sinclair a Director within the Performance Improvement Practice of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Debate following the presentations was very lively as attendees were understandably keen to get the most information from the panel of experts.
The proceedings though informative were not without humour. The one bold question I was dying to ask but refrained from doing so was, “Given the bleak picture you have outlined Mr Moulton do you think we should, if we get the opportunity, fix our mortgage rates now?” Luckily, fellow panellist Colin Stanbridge posed this in a light-hearted way at the end – to which the answer was an obvious “Yes!”.
More humour came from the master of ceremonies, Richard Fisher of COA Solutions, who quipped, “Jon, thank you for that enlightening, if somewhat depressing overview. We expected nothing less. In fact when we booked the event we made sure we would be on the ground floor just in case attendees felt like throwing themselves out of the windows.”
Finally, when asked, “What should people do regarding the stress and dilemmas surrounding change management? ” a panellist suggested crying would be acceptable. If you would like see the presentations given at this event – check back on our blog frequently – they are currently being edited and highlights should be here at the end of the month.
Tags: credit crunch, downturn, Events, finance, Jon Moulton