Enterprise leaders throughout the globe are struggling to catch their breath. Executives are coping with a risky inventory market, excessive tariff uncertainty, and a litany of different points which have sprung up over the previous few months.
Constantine Alexandrakis, CEO of Russell Reynolds Associates, has been advising company boards and CEOs for many years. He says financial and geopolitical uncertainty are prime of thoughts for leaders, in line with the agency’s newest report on C-suite priorities in 2025. “There haven’t been widespread coverage modifications on this nation like this in a very long time,” he says.
Alexandrakis spoke with Fortune about what CEOs concern most proper now, how shaky markets are inflicting leaders to lean into AI, and why prime executives are making so many journeys to Washington.
This interview has been edited and condensed for readability.
Fortune: What’s conserving CEOs up at evening?
Constantine Alexandrakis: CEOs are anxious. They’re spending plenty of time in Washington, as you understand, to attempt to plead their case. And it is not simply the uncertainty. It is truly the uncertainty in regards to the uncertainty. CEOs are beginning to see actual impression on their companies. They’re beginning, behind closed doorways, to be extra open about their considerations relating to among the tariff insurance policies. There have not been widespread coverage modifications on this nation like this in a very long time. [Corporate leaders are] attempting to rapidly get authorities relations experience that they do not have.
They’re additionally interested by—in the event that they’re doing enterprise in Asia—how do they pivot round among the restrictions which can be taking place? There’s a realization that the fact is right here, that it should impression us in several methods, and [CEOs are] tactically attempting to determine find out how to regulate.
However there’s a view that perhaps it is a second that may truly soar begin what we have all been taking part in with, by way of AI, to search out new efficiencies.
What would discovering new efficiencies with AI seem like?
If income is changing into unpredictable, that signifies that the expense aspect of the financials must be extra rigorously managed. Are there methods to make use of synthetic intelligence to leap begin productiveness good points that may assist in a time of disaster?
There’s rising consensus which you could get, throughout company capabilities, as much as 25 or 30% productiveness good points by implementing brokers, and the advantages that these can generate. In each scenario the place the economic system will get pressured, there is a window of innovation and alter that will get escalated. So identical to within the pandemic, the place the usage of distant working and different communication applied sciences was sped up, CEOs are saying: “Is that this a possibility to hurry up the adoption of AI to assist us on the expense line?”
Are we seeing an period of the “CEO as Diplomat?”
Nearly each CEO I talked to is taking a visit by way of [Washington D.C.], and our authorities relations search group is busier than it ever has been. [Leaders] are additionally navigating the opposite aspect of [political issues] whether or not it is in Canada or China or so on.
Are authorities relations search groups in overdrive proper now?
They undoubtedly are. Anyone requested me, “I imply, is that standard? Does not that occur after each new president is elected?” And I would say, “I imply, to a point, however not noticeable. And that is noticeable. That is notable.”
What makes authorities relations specialist, and the place do you discover them?
The excessive degree issues that I would say are: individuals who perceive find out how to get to the suitable leaders in Washington, find out how to get into the White Home, have relationships with present folks of affect within the administration, and may construct a method round find out how to join the corporate’s points with the problem of a day, and push the corporate’s pursuits in that respect.
What’s difficult for the C-suite degree expertise you’re employed with proper now?
The largest problem when you’re a senior govt is: is that this second of uncertainty one the place you make a change? Whether or not you are a CEO going into a brand new firm or a senior chief, it’s a little bit more durable proper now to undertaking the place the economic system goes, what the assets are that you simply’d have entry to in a brand new job, how far the investments decelerate, and the way lengthy the availability chain shocks are going to final.
[Uncertainty] is hurting folks’s willingness to be cell. It is not stopping hiring in its tracks, however it’s creating extra questions when somebody is being recruited for one thing.
What are the very best leaders doing proper now to navigate this time of uncertainty?
Usually, it’s three issues: One is exuding grit, which is about being targeted on executing technique. Quantity two is exuding confidence [while also] being humble in regards to the challenges that now we have within the setting. The third goes outward.
The very best leaders throughout these instances flip [focus] outward and keep actually near their clients, exit and spend extra time with them than they’d. It’s meant to counteract the unfavourable impression of being too inwardly targeted at a time the place the world is shifting and you do not wish to miss any of your clients’ strikes.
Do you assume company tradition will come out of this era essentially totally different?
I feel it is a possibility for firms to come back out stronger of their tradition, relying on how they navigate the uncertainty collectively. The companies which can be being sure and non-volatile, and are offering a protected haven for his or her staff, in comparison with the uncertainty and volatility they see within the exterior world, will emerge stronger. And their cultures will emerge stronger.
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
