EXECUTIVE INSIGHT
Q. HOW IS CROWN HELPING CLIENTS MANAGE BOTH POLITICAL UNCERTAINTY AND THE PUSH FOR LOCALISED SERVICES?
» Because we’ ve operated in so many countries for 60 years, we’ ve seen many eras of political uncertainty, ranging from wars to pandemics to economic crises. These situations often trigger the movement of people and create additional demand for our Relocation business, which is also impacted by any shipping disruptions and price fluctuations. Those of us who have been in the business for a long time have become accustomed to endless changes to the environments we operate in.
This enables us to focus on helping our customers navigate this. They are normally less accustomed to disruption and it’ s our job to help them through it.
For the other businesses – Information Management, Workspace, Fine Art, Wine Cellaring and others – we’ ve built a framework that balances decentralised delivery with centralised standards. Local teams are empowered to act autonomously, but supported by global systems that ensure compliance, transparency and data integrity.
For example, our relocation clients can manage global assignments through one central platform, while still benefiting from local experts on the ground. In Information Management, we’ re helping clients transition from paper to digital archives – not just to save space, but to deliver faster access, better security and improved sustainability.
The other answer to this question is that macroeconomic uncertainty creates requests for services that we have resources to offer but we’ ve never been asked to provide before. It’ s in our DNA to listen to such requests and have an open mind about how we can deliver them. For example, a Fine Art client with a library of specialised periodicals asked Crown to install a temporary reading room at one of our sites. In another example, a major employer asked us to help them create a digital process to collect tens of thousands of employee signatures to comply with
100 July 2025