By Anna Teo

THE adage about seizing opportunities in a crisis couldn't ring more true for Mercer - or its chairman and CEO, Michele Burns.

In September last year, when it was apparent that the American economy and business climate could be looking at some rough times ahead - then just from sheer ripple effects of the US sub-prime mortgage fiasco - the consulting firm launched an advertising blitz centred on key client issues for which it offers insights and solutions. One year on, the corporate challenges around outsourcing, mergers and acquisitions, health and benefits, retirement and investments, managing human capital, have of course become big concerns, what with recession and retrenchment now predominate in the business landscape, in the US and beyond.

And the banner message across the advertising campaign that ran in the firm's markets worldwide - including three newspaper ads in Singapore just recently - proclaims in big, bold print: 'It's time to call Mercer'.

For Ms Burns, 50, who became chairman and CEO in September 2006, six months after joining parent group Marsh & McLennan Companies Inc as chief financial officer, Mercer's role and place come to the fore in the present climate when companies find themselves resorting to downsizing to stay afloat.

'One of my calls to arms, if you will, for my Mercer colleagues is that we help shape the conversation that occurs between governments, employers and employees,' she said on the sidelines of the Singapore Human Capital Summit last month, where she was a speaker. Her visit also coincided with Mercer celebrating 30 years in Singapore.

And yes, she would expect Mercer's services to be 'at least as in demand, if not more in demand' during the downturn, she says, because when the chips are down, companies want to know how to structure their work force against the downturn.

'How are their work force plans? Do they need to retrain? What do they do as they think about being in a downturn for a period of years? All that often involves rethinking your retirement plans, your health and benefit plans,' she says. 'It may well involve rethinking how you compensate and reward, how you provide a total rewards environment for your executives as well as your rank and file. So those questions come up, and they need help to answer those questions.'

There's also the aftermath to anticipate.

'It will be a surprise to me, and many others I think, as a result of these economic times and the massive amount of wealth that has been taken out of the system, if we don't see a second wave of legislation around things like employee benefits and healthcare benefits, and pensions in particular,' she adds. 'And as that begins to happen, Mercer should be at that table to try to help think through how the changes should be made legislatively, but obviously also then to help the employer sort out what those legislative changes are and sort out how to respond to them.'

It's already happening in the US, she pointed out, with the spotlight on executive compensation, among other things, in the wake of new regulation in the financial sector.

'For instance, how do we reward executives who work in industries of this nature? Congress has a way of prescribing rules that don't have a lot of meat behind them. It's just concepts. Well, then Mercer comes in and helps the clients understand what the intent is, and how will we function under that regulatory environment. Having said that, yes, focus and attention for perhaps very forward-looking projects may slow. But they may well be replaced by more urgent and immediate needs as a result of the financial crisis.'

She cites a 'real life example' from her stint at Delta Air Lines, where she was CFO from August 2000 to April 2004.

'During a downturn, one of the first things many companies do is they say, we have to close our plants. We can't use those workers right now, we need to either absolutely take them out of the work force permanently or design programmes where we can get them back. So, after Sept 11 (2001), just to give you a real life example of a different crisis, Delta had to, within six weeks, identify and create opportunities, if you will - we tried to make them opportunities - for 13,000 people to no longer be on Delta's payroll.