Interview with C Suite Executives

S’s background

S is a dynamic strategist experienced with building new products and markets, driving revenue growth and improving competitive market positioning. Her expertise is in identifying market and business opportunities and creating multi-channel market programs for B2B and B2C markets. After 20 years in executive leadership roles in direct marketing, relationship marketing and sales, S joined a nonprofit as Executive Director. S has a BA in Business Administration and Management. 

Interview with C Suite Executives

J’s background

J is a results-oriented leader with proven success in consistently growing profitable revenue. He has additional expertise in: strategic leadership; turnaround expertise; inspirational communications; operational excellence; global business development; and disciplined financial management. After 20 years in C-level roles in the biopharma industry, J joined a nonprofit as Executive Director. J has a BS/MS, Pharmacy & Business Administration from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.

Interview with C Suite Executives

What do some highly successful “C” Suite individuals say about the American Dream and the impact of the Great Recession?

Four C Suite executives met with me in 2010 to review the impact that the Great Recession had on the American Dream. Let’s get some background on them and see what they had to say.

Will consumers still consume?

Yes. For some product categories it’s going to come down to price alone because the brand has not given them a reason to pay more money for a product.  

http://newmediaandmarketing.com/the-sobering-reality-of-the-changes-in-consumer-behavior/consumers-consumer-behavior/

The stark contrast:

Maui’s volcano, Haleakala (House of the Sun) National Park

The reality of the changes in consumer behavior

Consumers are going to be watching how much they spend because they are afraid of loosing their jobs.  It’s more about needs than wants and making purchases that help consumers feel better about themselves.

There is a disconnect between the fortunes of American companies, which are doing quite well, and American workers, most of whom are earning a lower hourly wage now than they did during the recession.

Meanwhile, companies are flush: American firms generated $1.68 trillion in profit in the last quarter of 2010 alone. Many firms are not putting their next factory or R&D center in the U.S. when they could put it in Brazil, China or India. These emerging-market nations are churning out 70 million new middle-class workers and consumers every year. That’s one reason unemployment is high and wages are constrained here at home. This was true well before the recession.

From 2000 to 2007, the U.S. saw its weakest period of job creation since the Great Depression. Eventually taxes in this country are going to have to increase if we want to close the deficit.

The reality of the changes in consumer behavior

Consumer behavior has changed forever because of the recession and brands and companies are going to change the fundamental way in which they do business and how they think of their customers and prospects.  

Only 12.2% of economists surveyed by the Philadelphia Fed believe that the current backsliding will develop into a double-dip recession.  It used to take roughly six months for the U.S. to get back to a normal employment picture after a recession; the McKinsey Global Institute estimates it will take five years this time around.

That lingering unemployment cuts GDP growth by reducing consumer demand, which in turn makes it harder to create jobs. We would need to create 187,000 jobs a month, growing at a rate of 3.3%, to get to a healthy 5% unemployment rate by 2020. At the current rate of growth and job creation, we would maybe get halfway there by that time.

People plan to work into the 70s or later

Almost four in 10 workers said they'll work long past the normal retirement age, if they even retire at all, and a growing number of people said the recession will force them to work longer in life, a new survey finds.

Thirty-nine percent of people said they'll work past age 70 or simply never retire, according to the annual survey from the Transamerica Center for Retirement Studies, a nonprofit private foundation. Fifty-four percent of those surveyed said they plan to retire between age 60 to 69, and 6% said they'll retire between age 50 to 59.

Meanwhile, 40% of workers said the recession will force them to work longer than planned and 54% said that even after they retire, they'll continue to work, according to the survey of 4,080 U.S. workers conducted by Harris Interactive in February and March.

Of those who say they'll work in retirement or after age 65, 34% said it was because they can't afford to retire and 9% said it was because they need the health benefits. Yet 87% of those workers who plan to keep working said they don't have a back-up plan if for health or other reasons they're unable to continue working.

http://finance.yahoo.com/focus-retirement/article/112761/people-work-into-70s-marketwatch?cat=fidelity_2010_changing_jobs&mod=fidelity-changingjobs