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2021 CEO Survey
Mid-Market Companies
Navigating COVID-19
Businesses throughout the world have been battered by the pandemic and the US mid-market is no different.
- 2/3 of the companies we surveyed reported that their business has been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic,
- Almost all of our CEOs (95%) took action and made changes to how their company operates.
- The pandemic also sidelined many transactions with more than half of companies reporting that they delayed M&A activities.
- More than 40% of companies have experienced a negative impact to their operations.
- 70% of company’s supply chains were negatively affected.
has the pandemic impacted your business?
95%
of companies made changes to how they operate due to COVID-19
COVID-19
IMPACT ON COMPANIES
68%
NEGATIVE
17%
NEUTRAL
When the Going Gets Tough...
But there is some good news. Overwhelmingly, mid-market CEOs have acted to address this monumental market upheaval. Almost every CEO we polled indicated that they not only made operational changes, they also adjusted their revenue goals as well as their go-to-market (GTM) and/or sales processes due to COVID-19. CEOs have fought back, deploying an arsenal of tactics across sales and marketing.
The most used tools in the mid-market COVID-19 toolbox land squarely in the digital domain, perhaps signaling that the extraordinary circumstances of the last year may have accelerated digital transformation within the mid-market:
96%
of CEOs adjusted their revenue goals and targets due to COVID
95%
Shifted to digital tools and digital sales processes
⅔
Of companies that took more than one actions in the digital sphere also reported revenue growth
Leaders Hone in on Top
Priorities
There is nothing like a crisis to bring your priorities into sharp focus. Amidst an unprecedented business environment, mid-market leaders have become laser-focused on the things that matter most to their business – today and into the future. According to our survey results, revenue growth, customer experience and employee wellness respectively ranked as their top 3 priorities.
Forced Ranking Priority List
(CEO Rated 'Very Important')
Revenue Growth
72%
Customer Experience
67%
Employee Wellness
55%
Human Capital
53%
Virtual Teams
43%
Innovation
41%
Leadership
40%
Digital Transformation
36%
Newport Insight
COVID Insight
As the business impacts of the pandemic began to emerge in the second quarter of 2020, Newport outlined a three-phase approach to address the disruption – Stabilize, Re-start, and Success & Resiliency. Our survey results support the idea that the re-start phase often involved a pivot away from the risk of doing things the old way and toward new opportunities. Our data shows that those companies that changed their ways of operating, especially across multiple factors, were best able to move forward.
Lynn Lednicky
Newport Partner, Houston, TX
How Newport can help
Newport is a strategic business advisory firm, working with founders and CEOs of privately held, growth-stage companies to accelerate growth, improve performance, and successfully exit their businesses.
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