News | Industrial

With the job market heating up and the unemployment rate at a new low, there are millions of jobs waiting for the right people to fill them. This is great news for employees, but how can management retain top talent and keep high performers from jumping ship?

The combination of 3G Capital’s ongoing acquisitions, margin pressure from discounters like Aldi and Lidl and the expectations of activist investors has thrown consumer packaged goods companies in the food space squarely on the defensive. Most have reacted by going into cost-cutting mode, slashing entire layers of marketing and R&D talent from their organizations.

In 2013, Carol SingletonSlade, Steve Goodman, Trent Aulbaugh and Roger Aguirre of Egon Zehnder’s Global Energy Practice warned of the dire need for identifying and training a new generation of qualified and prepared executives who are ready and willing to lead oil and gas companies. Four years later, as Chevron’s chief executive John Watson is set to step down, his likely replacement is a representation of this “new leadership for a changing oil world.”

Digital transformation is driving demand for business engineers, reports the German daily Main-Echo. “Business engineers are particularly relevant today because they straddle two worlds,” explains Thorsten Gerhard, Egon Zehnder’s Industrial Practice Leader.

For decades, search firms in India and around the world have built their businesses on C-suite placements. But with the industry being disrupted by social networks and a complex hiring environment, business models are changing and search firms and management consultancies are now offering more value-added services.

Cyclical market volatility will continue to be standard in the energy industry. An impending market rebound has many feeling cautiously optimistic, but the extended cycle of the current downturn — now being characterized as “lower for longer” — has revealed a new reality in the energy sector that will change leadership imperatives for the foreseeable future.

Energy companies are finally starting to take IT seriously, says Egon Zehnder consultant Trent Aulbaugh in an interview with Bauer Business Focus.

The share of women on boards in Switzerland is growing, but there is still room for improvement, reports the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

Languishing oil prices are making Chapter 11 a reality for a growing number of energy companies. In their recent article More Than Filling Empty Seats: A Guide to Board Composition for Energy Companies Emerging from Bankruptcy, Steve Goodman and Trent Aulbaugh explain how board restructuring can help firms bounce back after Chapter 11.