Where Can CEOs Turn for Help?

These days, CEOs are supposed to have the mettle for handling uncertainty. But this past week, with its unpredicted trade disruptions and market turmoil, has had bosses digging through their Rolodexes for answers, advice, or just a person to vent to. 

The sheer volume of information has reminded CEOs that they can’t go it alone—and shouldn't try. First came a wave of announced tariffs by the US affecting nearly every other country in the world, then a market drop not seen since the early days of COVID-19, and then a dramatic pullback on most US-initiated tariffs for now. CEOs and other senior leaders are feeling pressure to digest information and take swift action, even as the constantly changing environment complicates—and raises the stakes of—every decision. “Some of these decisions could cost companies hundreds of millions of dollars,” says Meredith Moot, a senior client partner in Korn Ferry’s Global Industrial practice.

At least one automaker has set up an internal task force to assess the US-led tariffs in daily meetings the CEO is sitting in on. Experts say that’s not a bad idea for other organizations to consider. This small group—which can include leaders in a firm’s government-relations, supply-chain, and finance arms—can also reach out to third parties, such as think tanks and lobbying groups, for additional perspectives and guidance, says Kevin Cashman, Korn Ferry’s vice chairman for CEO and enterprise leadership. “Your team of advisors will not likely agree,” he says, but their advice can be filtered by the CEO to make decisions. 

Other external experts might include multinational law firms, which can offer guidance on how firms might need to adjust business practices; trade associations, which often have an ear to the ground in the world’s political capitals; and investment banks, whose analysts are crunching the numbers on the potential ramifications—for both the world’s economies and individual industries—of a new wave of tariffs. For CEOs looking to do their own research, experts say a couple of outsiders routinely stand out. Alan Guarino, vice chairman of Korn Ferry’s Board and CEO Services practice, points out that some key Wall Street figures are analyzing, in real time, the tariffs’ potential repercussions on the global economy. Cashman notes that some longtime business strategists are doing the same.

Meanwhile, bosses are combing through their networks for anyone with experience in the US Department of Commerce, with US President Donald Trump, or both, to get a better sense of how this dispute can be resolved or, at a minimum, what scenarios can be ruled out. “They’re trying to glean anything they can,” says Chris Cantarella, a senior client partner in Korn Ferry’s Global Technology Markets practice.

Some CEOs don’t necessarily need specific guidance. Instead, they need someone they can just share personal experiences with, or even just vent to. For that, experts say bosses should turn to fellow CEOs at other organizations. “Good executives will always be able to reach out peer-to-peer,” Cantarella says.

That said, another contingent of CEOs, believing this hyper level of trade turmoil is unsustainable, aren’t making additional efforts to seek help. For instance, Saudi Arabia is making a big push to attract US multinational firms to set up manufacturing facilities there. But that goal is seemingly in opposition to one of the tariffs’ stated goals, to bring manufacturing back to the US. No one knows how the two ideas will, or can, coexist. 

“We’re in wait-and-see mode now,” says Iktimal Daneshvar, Korn Ferry’s vice president for recruitment process outsourcing in EMEA.

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