MEDIA PLACEMENTS FROM ONE PAN-DESIGNED STUDY
INCREASE IN THOUGHT LEADERSHIP SOV VS. TOP COMPETITORS
Introduction
When Safeguard Global joined PAN as a new client in 2026…
the global hiring company knew who it needed to reach: CFOs, the executives who approve and pay for expansion into new countries. What it lacked was a story built for them. Safeguard also gave PAN something every agency dreams of. PAN would lead the research itself, from finding the topic through designing the study to delivering the coverage.
SOLUTION
PAN started by finding the white space.
Then, team members built a study to fill it. Strategists mapped the issues weighing on CFOs, flagged topics that were underreported or underdeveloped, and benchmarked research other tech companies had published on similar questions. Other studies touched on global expansion, but none put the CFO at the center. PAN’s study asked whether companies were still hiring globally, whether geopolitical unrest was holding them back, and whether the ones expanding were doing it compliantly.
That became The Global Hiring Confidence Series. PAN designed the survey of 400 US and UK CFOs, analyzed the results, and wrote the inaugural ebook, Untangling the CFO Paradox Between Confidence and Restraint. PAN’s creative team designed the ebook.
The PR team launched the findings in August with the headline stat that 78 percent of CFOs reported losing up to $1 million to noncompliance when expanding globally. In September, a second wave repositioned the data around geopolitical risk, with CEO Bjorn Reynolds speaking to how UK CFOs are shifting hiring to safer markets.
result
The study generated…
17 placements across US and UK finance, business, HR, and tech press, including Fortune, CFO.com, Yahoo Finance, Finance Chief, CFO Tech, and HR Director. CFO.com ran a feature with a written Q&A from Florence Cazemajou-Flint, Chief Financial Officer at Safeguard, which Yahoo Finance syndicated. Fortune’s CFO newsletter also cited the findings. The data is still opening doors, with CFO Brew and Raconteur pursuing follow-up interviews.
The CFO study is the first installment of The Global Hiring Confidence Series. PAN and Safeguard are now developing a CHRO study for the new year, building the steady research cadence that keeps a brand in front of the C-suite.
