Sharon Gaber, Chancellor of UNC Charlotte, will moderate the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance’s annual economic forecast panel with Darius Adamczyk, CEO of Honeywell, Marvin Ellison, CEO of Lowe, and Brian Moynihan, Bank of America. Photo: Alexandria Sands/Axios
Charlotte’s most powerful CEOs predict the US will do “OK” as it heads into a new year of economic uncertainty.
Driving the news: Honeywell CEO Darius Adamczyk, Lowe CEO Marvin Ellison, and Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan took to the stage Tuesday to reflect on the past year’s work-from-home trends during the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance’s annual economic forecast to discuss and predict the economy in 2023.
Take fast: Instead of warning of a major recession, business leaders spoke cautiously of a slowdown and inflation.
- “We’re still going to be talking about inflation by this time next year,” Moynihan said.
- “On a global scale, I think it’s going to be a tougher economy,” Adamczyk said. “I still think (the US) will be fine. I don’t think it will be as good as 22.”
What you say: Adamczyk called the national market “resilient”.
- “Consumers came back much quicker than anyone expected,” he said, speaking of flight hours.
Using the numbers: Inflation slowed to an annual rate of 7.1% in November, the lowest rise in consumer prices since the end of 2021. On Wednesday, the US Federal Reserve increased interest rates by half a percentage point to 4.25% to 4.5%.
Flashback: During last year’s economic forecast with the Alliance, both large and small companies were still grappling with the impact of COVID. As they reflected on 2022, CEOs emphasized the importance of securing workers, adjusting for inflation and managing the supply chain.
- “Many companies, including ourselves, were supplied too closely from a single source. We’re learning those lessons,” Moynihan said. “That’s what we learned in the pandemic running around trying to get masks.”
Here are some other notable topics that CEOs discussed:
To work from home
In March 2020, Adamczyk recalled that a rumor spread throughout the Honeywell office that an employee was coughing.
- “We sent everyone home immediately,” he said. “And they didn’t come back for months and months.”
Since then, Talks were held across the country about the balance between in-person and remote work. But local leaders are concerned young professionals are missing out on growth opportunities, from face-to-face training to quick tips from seniority — informal lessons you wouldn’t necessarily schedule a Zoom for.
- “Imagine the early years of your career when you never met your boss in person. That’s the experience of the person who left college in 2019, 2020,” Moynihan said.
said Adamczyk three days in the office seems appropriate.
- Bank of America lured more employees to its cafeteria this fall by offering free meals. “Aside from the thank you for the free lunch on us, the big comments I got back were, ‘It was great to see people interacting with each other,'” Moynihan said.
Annual prospect event of the Charlotte Regional Business Alliance. Photo: Alexandria Sands/Axios
Knowledge of customers in e-commerce
When Ellison started At Lowe’s in 2018, he said the only headline related to the company’s technology was the Black Friday system crash. But as more Americans find e-commerce more convenient, the company’s digital capabilities have adapted.
now Lowe’s is attracting national attention for its technical work, such as B. its “digital twin”, a virtual tool that creates a digital replica of a store.
- “The winners in retail will be the companies that can bridge digital and physical stores,” Ellison said.
- He also said the live, work-play environment of South End, the location of Lowe’s new tech hub, is more attractive to tech talent than Mooresville, where the company’s headquarters are located.
Investing in Charlotte’s quality of life and racial justice
The CEOs praised it Charlotte Mayor’s Racial Equity Initiative, a partnership between local government and private companies to invest in historically abandoned neighborhoods, bridge the community’s digital divide and support historic Black Johnson C. Smith University.
- Bank of America donated $25 million and Lowe’s pledged $10 million. Honeywell donated approximately $5 million in 13,000 recycled laptops to E2D, a local non-profit organization.
- “It’s on all of us as business leaders to do everything in our power to make this the best place in the country to live and raise children,” Ellison said, adding that improving Charlotte will make it more attractive to recruits.
said Adamczyk other cities and towns should look at Charlotte’s Racial Justice Initiative collaboration and copy it.
- “I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said.
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