Navigating difficult times requires trust and resilience

As published on LinkedIn by Linda Seymour

Deloitte recently released their 2021 Resilience Report based on a survey of 2,260 private- and public-sector CXOs in 21 countries – and spoke to C-suite executives, including me, about how their organizations are grappling with the “new normal” as they face tough choices, explore new ways of operating, and confront fundamental shifts in their strategies.

For me, navigating through difficult times requires trust. Trust is built in normal times but it’s really tested during the hard times. And that’s been fundamental to how we’ve approached managing through this last difficult year. We put our customers and people first and that put us in a better place moving forward. 

It’s even more important when you consider that more than six in 10 of those surveyed expect to see either occasional or regular disruptions of this scale going forward, and three quarters said they believe the climate crisis is of similar or greater magnitude compared to the COVID-19 pandemic.

CXOs ranked climate change as the top societal issue for business to tackle over the next decade. According to HSBC’s Navigator survey last year, businesses are already taking this on with more than four out of five Canadian businesses expecting to rebuild on more environmentally sustainable foundations as a result of COVID-19.

And HSBC will be there to support them, as we have been through this most challenging of times – with the global experience and perspective on evolving trends and issues that they have come to rely on.