Like many in the business of live events, Will Mould’s company XYZ, an experiential marketing marketing agency with clients including Nike and Levis, took a hit in 2020. After a stellar start to the year, things just fell off a cliff. “Huge amounts of work were cancelled by the major bands we work with; we had pretty much no revenue whatsoever for the next six months,” says Mould.
The live events and hospitality industries have been among the hardest hit by the coronavirus crisis. For such businesses, a nationwide ban on people gatherings made the worst-case scenario a reality. Measures to counter the pandemic required the immediate shutdown of all operations, with no indication when they might be able to resume.
For the people at the top of those companies, the last year will have been a rigorous test of their ability to navigate a crisis. It’s an increasingly important quality for senior executives as significant business disruptions are expected to happen more often. The climate crisis, digital transformation and geopolitics are all expected to pose challenges to business in the future.