Apparently, US consumers are bored with the recession and out in force wanting to spend. (I'm not so sure about that. I think it's the ones who still have their jobs. But, anyway, that's what some US commentators are saying...) But 71% of US CEOs are stuck in last month's or last quarter's mindset and are too timid to take advantage of it. In fact, 71% of American CEOs are helping the recession continue, as they plan more layoffs and to horde cash.



The suggestion that CEOs are holding us back from recovery by being over-cautious shows a marked lack of leadership if it's true. Slipping into 'hunker down recession' mode prolongs the downturn. The argument is put by Forbes' publisher on the company's talkback video site. The link is below. It's an interesting point, weakened, unfortunately by a flying bunch of bananas.

I used to be a press officer many moons ago. And one of the things we always told interviewees going in front of the camera was - beware 'flying bunch of banana syndrome'. That's when your hand suddenly appears on the screen and completely distracts the viewer from what you are saying, as they are instead thinking "Whoa: looks just like a bunch of bananas flying across the bottom of the screen".

Forbes' media advisor needs to have a quiet word with the publisher before he does the next one of these talkback 'to camera' pieces. Those bananas are flying all over the place.

Here's a link to the clip.

Labels: leading in a downturn, leading through a recession