Job Title: Positive
Location: Washington DC
Submitted on: 12-Dec-04
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Job Title |
Business Outlook
Survey |
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I think the outlook for Corporate Executive Board is positive. This is
the kind of company that will offer its clients high quality advice at a
low cost. The company's competition comes in the form of its own
clients, which are often improving their own in-house research and
consulting divisions to supply them with all of the information they
need. However, I cannot imagine that every company that Corporate
Executive Board works with will develop those kinds of capabilities. In
other words, there will always be a need for the kinds of business
research services that Corporate Executive Board offers.
That said, as the economy improves and companies such as McKinsey create
information divisions to supply their clients with research services
(McKinsey has already done this), Corporate Executive Board will see
some increased competition. Also, Corporate Executive Board is facing a
huge challenge in that there are only so many of its "traditional"
research programs that it can create: after all, corporations do not
have an endless supply of corporate departments. Additionally, I can
see that some of the work that Corporate Executive Board could be done
more cheaply by counterparts in places such as India. However, I could
not underestimate the smart decisions of Corporate Executive Board's
senior staff: it has already created an office in India, it has an
internal consulting group whose job is to ensure that the company is
competitive, it has refocused its programs in Europe to appeal to a lot
of corporations that it does not already serve (the largest 1,000
European corporations), it can make efforts to serve more Asian clients,
and it has begun to offer high-priced consulting services to its
existing clients. Corporate Executive Board, if it executes well, will
just keep growing.
In terms of distribution channels, Corporate Executive Board has a great
sales force. They are a competitive group of people who thrive in a
culture of money. I do not see the company contracting with outside
sales forces. However, I think that Corporate Executive Board has begun
to sell its products more intelligently in different countries. For
example, the company now holds meetings in Europe that have only
prospective clients from each particular country (example: a room full
of prospective clients from Germany, or France). This kind of effort
will make it easier for the company to build its European client base,
which can only help Corporate Executive Board considering that the euro
is far stronger than the dollar now and the company's services will soon
be considered a "good deal" in Europe. The company also has new offices
in London to reflect its goal of improving its services for European
clients.
In terms of employee morale, I do not see Corporate Executive Board
paying its employees more. This is the kind of company than is "lean
and mean" - it demands a lot from employees. It also promotes the idea
that employees choose to work at Corporate Executive Board but could
make more money elsewhere - so I do not see employees making more money
at Corporate Executive Board anytime soon, unless they are in sales. I
think that employees can burn out easily at Corporate Executive Board:
there is very little "down time," and most employees do not travel
anywhere. However, some positions will definitely give employees
experiences that employees at any other company may never get, such as
meetings with high-level corporate officers at large global
corporations. That is one reason why people stay at Corporate Executive
Board: they influence the decisions of people around the world. There
is a definite appeal to that kind of power.
My opinion is that Corporate Executive Board will keep on growing. From
my understanding, the company always hits its stock price and revenue
targets, without fail. That is unique. But growth does not always feel
good for employees.
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