Market conditions

By Fiona Czerniawska.

“Change doth unknit the tranquil strength of men,” wrote the nineteenth-century English poet Matthew Arnold.

2016 tested even the most optimistic consultants’ mantra that all change is good for the industry. To be fair, the year’s two biggest changes–the election of Donald Trump and Brexit–have so far done little more than create huge uncertainty, making it hard for clients to decide where to focus their limited resources. That hiatus in corporate decision-making may be brief in the US, given the number of executive orders flying out of the White House, but the nature of the UK’s post-Brexit world is no clearer now than it was six months ago. So it’s tempting to hunker down and wait for the fog to clear.