One on One With North Highland's Barbara Ray

Ray: It really depends on the client and the industry. The life sciences industry, for example, has had minimal COVID impact, and in some ways have had a positive COVID impact. Those industries we're seeing they're really looking to accelerate their agile capabilities, they're looking to accelerate their digital capabilities. So there are certain industries that are certainly using these opportunities to accelerate their positions. The hospitality industry has been hit very hard. We have certainly a nice group of clients in that industry, and what's been interesting is while they've definitely pulled back and eliminated spend on things that they don't need to spend on or can't afford to spend on given the current state of affairs, they're coming to us to help with their plans to get out of this. For example, an entity that furloughed thousands of people at the beginning of COVID, come summertime they realized the end's not near, and leaned on us to help formulate their new business model. So given where they are, and believe they'll be for some time, how do we pivot into a new business model, what kind of people do we need in order to accommodate that, and what are our plans as we think we're coming out of this. We've found ourselves being a partner with our clients even in industries that have suffered greatly due to the pandemic to help them solve their most strategic problems. 

Consulting: What are some of the unique challenges firms with growth aspirations are facing right now?

Ray: I still think there's a tremendous amount of uncertainty right now. In our political environment, with the pandemic itself, in the economy. My hypothesis is there's not much further down to go with the big companies that have been significantly impacted. They probably course-corrected at their bottom, but their upward trajectory will be substantially slower if there's some additional impact. You think about hospitality and airlines and those companies that have been very front and center in the news of having significant impact. The ones that haven't been as impacted, like life sciences, I don't think any further shutdowns will have substantial impacts on them. There's uncertainty, and with uncertainty comes the question of whether there will be continued or future downward pressures.

Consulting: Have clients' demands changed between the spring pandemic heights to now?

Ray: Absolutely from the height to now. During the height, there were many spigots that were completely turned off because of the unknown. Because globally we didn't really have a view of how long this would last and what the impacts would be. I'd say in the spring we saw significant shutdowns. We speculated that would change in the August timeframe, my experience has been it was a little closer to September where organizations felt comfortable that they knew their position, whether they've benefited or whether they've had significant financial impact. It felt as if our clients and our economy was comfortable with its current position in September. That has sustained itself through the winter so far, and we've seen a continual uptick of opportunities and need based on that confidence of knowing what their position is in the market and the economy and having plans to move forward based on wherever they are. 

Consulting: What does it mean to you being the first woman president at North Highland? What sort of challenges, opportunities, or expectations do you see as coming with that distinction?

Ray: North Highland has had a long tradition of some fabulous female leaders, and I've been fortunate over my nine years with the firm to have worked directly with some incredible female leaders from whom I've taken great lessons and great coaching and who have really helped me get to this place in my career. It's humbling, and I'm incredibly proud of that title. I'm not sure I've ever been the first anything. What's been fabulous is I've had so many of my female colleagues and females in our organization more junior reach out and say to me how proud they are to have a female in this role, how that makes them see themselves and their career and their upward trajectory in a different way. It's really been humbling to be that role model and to serve that vision for other females in our firm. The piece of the story that you're the first female president for North Highland has resonated and been impactful to enough people who have reached out to me to express that is an incredible honor, and something I will not take lightly, and something I will lean into significantly and ensure I am providing the coaching and mentoring and the guidance and the example for others to follow in my footsteps.