TomSorensen - Your title won't save you. Your network will!
By Tom Sorensen
Managing Partner of Tom Sorensen | NPAworldwide Recruitment
Email: tom.s@tomsorensen.in.th
Executive job security is dead. The sooner you accept this, the better your odds of survival.
Amazon just cut 16,000 corporate roles. Dow Chemical is eliminating 4,500 jobs. And the list grows daily.
The unspoken truth in these announcements is that VPs, directors, and other senior leaders are being cut right alongside everyone else.
- No title is permanent.
- No company is loyal.
- No executive is untouchable.
The traditional promise of senior-level job security has evaporated. Cost-cutting is a permanent strategy, boards demand immediate impact, and restructuring makes expensive executives visible targets.
The brutal truth is this
If your network has gone quiet, you're already in danger.
Most leaders only network when they need something; that's not networking, it's extraction.
You know I have always said: You need to network when you don't need one! Yes, quote by Tom Sorensen.
The executives who survive and thrive aren't the ones with the strongest titles; they're the ones with the strongest relationships.
From my executive search practice in Thailand and across Asia, with Tom Sorensen & NPAworldwide, I see this divide every day.
The smartest leaders operate like free agents. Not because they're disloyal, but because they're realistic.
They maintain warm connections and stay visible outside their company, keeping an opportunity pipeline running at all times.
Ask yourself: If your role disappeared tomorrow, who are the first five people you would call? More importantly, who would call you?
The best time to build your network was three years ago. The second-best time is today.
What is one action you will take this month to strengthen your network before you need it?
