Ingram’s September 2022

2020, but pivoted to other sales tools, made it through, and resumed growth in 2021. A downturn, however, can be a time of opportunity, Norsworthy said: “Often these, times force you to self- reflect and make needed adjustments that were overlooked due to a robust economy.” Kathy Nelson, leading the Greater Kansas City Sports Commission and Foundation, is keeping a wary eye on costs. “As organizations that produce our own events, like the Garmin Kansas City Marathon and Kansas City Triathlon, as well as attract conventions as visitors, inflation is an immediate concern since it impacts both business and discre tionary spending,” she says. “And with COVID-19 restrictions easing, there is increased competition for market share when it comes to personal and business travel, sports tourism, and endurance events.” The Talent Quest For many of these executives, the most pressing issue—as if inflation, higher interest rates and supply-chain constraints weren’t pressing enough—is acquisition and retention of talent in one of the tightest labor markets any execu tive has ever experienced. And for many, the most immediate response has been to pour dollars into payroll, with higher wages and bonuses. Others are pursuing more innovative approaches. At the accounting/consulting firm FORVIS, which was formed with the BKD merger earlier this year, managing partner Rachel Dwiggins said a multi pronged strategy was in place. “Recently, we’ve launched a gener ous referral bonus program to incentiv ize our team to recruit friends and past colleagues,” Dwiggins said. “We’ve en listed a consulting agency to help ensure that our compensation programs are highly competitive. We’re also taking ad vantage of the merger (to choose the best benefits solutions from each of the leg acy firms). Locally, we’ve increased our internal networking programs to create stronger bonds between all levels of staff and leadership.”

“Inflation is an immediate concern since it im pacts both business and discretionary spending.” — KATHY NELSON , PRESIDENT & CEO, GREATER KANSAS CITY SPORTS COMMISSION AND FOUNDATION

market activity, which generally does not help their situation. Having a plan and a vision for what you want your wealth to do for you is important in any environ ment. The greater the communication we can have with clients, the greater the outcome.” Jeanette Prenger, whose IT solutions team at ECCO Select has a long track re cord of high year-over-year growth, boils the recession prospects down to a single word: “Likely,” she says. Accordingly, the firm is “reducing expenses, overhead and focusing on providing more value to our partners,” she said. Veteran commercial real-estate pro Dave Harrison, of VanTrust Real Estate, sees a recession as “somewhat likely, with sector-specific opportunities com bined with sector/geographic challenges. We have focused on ‘dialing up’ disci plines and processes throughout the or ganization and emphasizing patience in the pursuit of future deals.” Leading one of the fastest-grow ing companies Kansas City’s thriving transportation and logistics sector, Jeff Auslander at Dynamic Logistix believes that a downturn “is somewhat likely. Government over-spending eventually catches up to the situation, but I hope not for all of us. Either way, Dynamic Logistix is prepared to thrive via our product and people who are our tar get market. Getting the message out to our target client market that there is a 21st century way to run their trans- portation, and that will help them dur ing any economic downturn or upturn because of innovation versus old fash ioned way of doing things in supply chain. Most likely, says Pivot International’s Mark Dohnalek, a recession will visit us “late this year to early to mid-year 2023.” In anticipation of that, he’s position ing his manufacturing and engineering

KC Street Car lan Restaurant Management, where president Michael Norsworthy leads a family-owned, multistate restaurant group operating as 54th Street Grill. He sees a recession as likely—“and probably a good thing to curb extreme inflation.” His company was clobbered by imposed business operating restrictions as lo cal and state governments grasped for solutions to an emerging pandemic in enterprise, with operations in the U.S., China and Taiwan, to “make certain the cost structure is aligned with an antici pated most-difficult business growth en vironment.” At Willis Towers Watson, the nation al business insurance and benefits firm, Spencer Fields believes “we will likely have a slight recession in late 2022 going into 2023. With the tight labor market and potential lessening of supply chain challenges, I believe we will experience less of an adverse impact of a recession.” To meet the threat, he ways, WTW will focus first on the needs of current cli ents, and attracting new ones. Opera tionally, “we will also carefully monitor discretionary spending,” he said. In the travel realm, Clayton Reid of MMGY Global says a recession is likely, but not to the depth or degree that many are predicting. “Especially in the travel industry, where we expect a slight soft ening of leisure demand, but corporate and group travel to exceed the forecast of most economists over the next 24 months,” he said. Consumer confidence, noted Reid, has always been intrinsically linked to the travel industry’s success, and it has been declining. “We have been lucky that our focus on travel continues to attract talent to our offices around the world but finding the right balance of flex work and collaboration in person is something we are still working through.” Also in the hospitality sector is Kel

26

I n g r a m ’ s

September 2022

Ingrams.com