CMA Executive: 2022 Quarterly Business Review
CMA’s Associate Director George Weston gives us a rundown of the highlights, opportunities and challenges from Q1 of 2022.
The recent Solent 250 Awards, coupled with the resulting category interviews with the shortlisted companies, shed some interesting insights on the challenges and opportunities facing businesses across our region.
High on the agenda is of course skills shortages, as over 40% of businesses are struggling to find workers with the right skills, and almost a third of companies are concerned by shortage of overseas workers.
Economic Growth in the South Central Region
BDO’s Rethinking the Economy research highlighted that Central South businesses plan to hire more people to support growth, however, a shortage of workers and the rising costs of employment could hamper recovery in 2022. They identified that 19% of medium-sized businesses in the region are intending to increase the size of their workforce over the next 12 months.
Supporting growth has certainly been one of the drivers for CFO appointments across the region, with CMA Executive mandates already 11% up on Q1 2021. To put this in context, the number of CFO positions fell 65% in 2020, compared with 2019 and then quickly recovered to, and have gone beyond, pre-pandemic levels achieved in 2021.
An additional driver that has led to CFO appointments in the region has been the focus on transformation, with many companies reshaping themselves to capture the upside of the economic rebound, embracing the changes initiated by the pandemic and investing in the existing business to accelerate organic growth and value creation.
This in turn has highlighted certain skills, experiences and behaviours of a CFO that businesses in the region are prioritising.
- A background in business transformation, such as reconfiguring internal processes to strengthen operational resilience.
- Being digitally aware, using technology and automation to replace labour and improve scalability.
- Developing monthly reporting to provide greater insights for investment appraisal and commercial decision-making. This is particularly important for the development and execution of strategy, when faced with multiple growth opportunities.
- Fundraising and corporate finance activities.
- Supporting recruitment and retention strategies to stay in line with an evolving landscape and delivering on growth forecasts.
Looking forward
Whilst there has been a very positive start to the year, significant risks such as the current geopolitical tension, political market interference and the climate emergency could have a detrimental impact on the region and impact growth opportunities throughout 2022.
Whilst this is something for businesses to certainly bear in mind, for businesses in the South Central region there are certainly a lot of opportunities for growth to be excited about, utilising the lessons and insight gained over the past two years.