The document summarizes key findings from a survey of CEOs and C-Suite executives on how their organizations are responding to challenges in the digital age. Some of the main points include:
- Organizations are acknowledging the need for radical change and reinvention to adapt to new technologies and business models.
- Tight labor markets are intensifying concerns about attracting and retaining top talent.
- CEOs see a need for cultures that are innovative, inclusive, and empower employees at all levels through development opportunities.
- The future workforce is expected to rely more on contingent and non-traditional arrangements like freelancers, as well as automation, to remain agile in changing conditions.
Since 1999, The Conference Board CEO Challenge® survey has asked CEOs across the globe to identify the most critical issues they face and their strategies to meet them. Since 2017, the C-Suite Challenge has expanded the survey pool beyond CEOs to the entire C-suite. This year’s survey, conducted between September and October 2019, asked 1,520 C-suite executives, including 740 CEOs across the globe, for their views on the external and internal stress points they face, the need and will to collaborate with nontraditional partners to drive future growth, and the impact that cyber risk and more sophisticated attitudes toward data privacy will have on their organizations in a digitally transformed business environment. This first report focuses on the hot-button issues, external and internal to firms, as seen by CEO and other C-suite executives.
This document summarizes the key findings of a survey of over 1,400 C-suite executives, including 815 CEOs, about the future of organizations and the economy. The top concerns for 2019 are a potential global recession and disruption to global trade systems. Looking to 2025, CEOs believe successful organizations will be highly customer-centric, redefine work through agile teams, have blurred internal/external boundaries, leverage new technologies, and view sustainability as a driver of growth. However, CEOs may underestimate changes needed for true digital transformation and not prioritize elements like gender pay gaps that build an inclusive culture.
With advancing technologies, many organizations are focused more than ever on recruiting—particularly for skills they
need to succeed, such as expertise in data science, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. These hard-to-find and
hard-to-hire skills—like so many other skilled professions—cost a lot to recruit. With labor pools shrinking, retaining
talent at every level is critical. Recruiting is more expensive than retention, which can be optimized via training or
creating a culture of constant learning. Choosing recruitment over retention also has a negative effect on employees,
who are left to wonder why their work seems to have less value than that of a new employee.
In this environment, it becomes clear that value lies in the engagement of employees—making sure they are actively
contributing to the company while learning new skills and advancing their own careers. But how to measure something
as intangible as engagement?
Etude PwC "20ème édition de la CEO Survey" - Janvier 2017PwC France
Quelles sont les préoccupations des dirigeants en 2017 ?
Cette année, plus de 1300 dirigeants du monde entier ont témoigné de leur confiance en l’avenir, leur priorités stratégiques.
Recherche de talents et des futurs leaders de demain, stratégies de développement, poids de la technologie et son impact sur la confiance en l’entreprise, dynamiques opposées de mondialisation et de nationalismes impactent le quotidien des dirigeants. Quel regard portent-ils sur leur environnement ?
http://pwc.to/2k0a12Q
***************************************************************
For the last two decades, PwC has asked business leaders everywhere about the trends reshaping business and society. As we mark the 20th year of our annual CEO survey, we’ve observed just how much the world has changed.
CEOs now expect more from their communications functions in the digital age:
1) CCOs must provide granular, data-driven measurements of corporate reputation across many stakeholder groups and brand attributes.
2) Communications strategies must be prepared for rapid response since issues can emerge quickly via social media.
3) The function has an offensive role in proactively building relationships, not just defense against crises.
4) Active listening to social media and stakeholder opinions informs corporate decision-making.
This document outlines a North America STEM initiative focused on increasing student interest and career readiness in STEM fields. It discusses challenges in STEM education in the US and Canada, including a lack of computer science programs and high unemployment among youth. The initiative includes thought leadership activities to advocate for STEM, partnerships with non-profits supporting underserved groups, and a goIT program providing hands-on STEM learning to students. Feedback praised the company's leadership in driving research, convening partners, and developing solutions to fill STEM talent gaps through corporate involvement.
Understanding the Critical Trends Impacting Organizations in the Next Five YearsHolly Gage
The Forum Corporation (www.forum.com) recently conducted analysis of future trend research on the strategic issues that will most impact the global marketplace in the next one to five years. This presentation reveals our findings.
The document provides 160 potential topics for literature reviews across various business domains, including marketing, finance, leadership, marketing strategy, stress management, training and development, inventory management, economic issues, customer satisfaction, accounting, unemployment, consumer behaviour, motivation, customer perception, brand awareness, and mobile banking. The topics range from case studies of specific companies to analyzing trends within an industry or assessing the impact of various business strategies and organizational practices.
Since 1999, The Conference Board CEO Challenge® survey has asked CEOs across the globe to identify the most critical issues they face and their strategies to meet them. Since 2017, the C-Suite Challenge has expanded the survey pool beyond CEOs to the entire C-suite. This year’s survey, conducted between September and October 2019, asked 1,520 C-suite executives, including 740 CEOs across the globe, for their views on the external and internal stress points they face, the need and will to collaborate with nontraditional partners to drive future growth, and the impact that cyber risk and more sophisticated attitudes toward data privacy will have on their organizations in a digitally transformed business environment. This first report focuses on the hot-button issues, external and internal to firms, as seen by CEO and other C-suite executives.
This document summarizes the key findings of a survey of over 1,400 C-suite executives, including 815 CEOs, about the future of organizations and the economy. The top concerns for 2019 are a potential global recession and disruption to global trade systems. Looking to 2025, CEOs believe successful organizations will be highly customer-centric, redefine work through agile teams, have blurred internal/external boundaries, leverage new technologies, and view sustainability as a driver of growth. However, CEOs may underestimate changes needed for true digital transformation and not prioritize elements like gender pay gaps that build an inclusive culture.
With advancing technologies, many organizations are focused more than ever on recruiting—particularly for skills they
need to succeed, such as expertise in data science, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. These hard-to-find and
hard-to-hire skills—like so many other skilled professions—cost a lot to recruit. With labor pools shrinking, retaining
talent at every level is critical. Recruiting is more expensive than retention, which can be optimized via training or
creating a culture of constant learning. Choosing recruitment over retention also has a negative effect on employees,
who are left to wonder why their work seems to have less value than that of a new employee.
In this environment, it becomes clear that value lies in the engagement of employees—making sure they are actively
contributing to the company while learning new skills and advancing their own careers. But how to measure something
as intangible as engagement?
Etude PwC "20ème édition de la CEO Survey" - Janvier 2017PwC France
Quelles sont les préoccupations des dirigeants en 2017 ?
Cette année, plus de 1300 dirigeants du monde entier ont témoigné de leur confiance en l’avenir, leur priorités stratégiques.
Recherche de talents et des futurs leaders de demain, stratégies de développement, poids de la technologie et son impact sur la confiance en l’entreprise, dynamiques opposées de mondialisation et de nationalismes impactent le quotidien des dirigeants. Quel regard portent-ils sur leur environnement ?
http://pwc.to/2k0a12Q
***************************************************************
For the last two decades, PwC has asked business leaders everywhere about the trends reshaping business and society. As we mark the 20th year of our annual CEO survey, we’ve observed just how much the world has changed.
CEOs now expect more from their communications functions in the digital age:
1) CCOs must provide granular, data-driven measurements of corporate reputation across many stakeholder groups and brand attributes.
2) Communications strategies must be prepared for rapid response since issues can emerge quickly via social media.
3) The function has an offensive role in proactively building relationships, not just defense against crises.
4) Active listening to social media and stakeholder opinions informs corporate decision-making.
This document outlines a North America STEM initiative focused on increasing student interest and career readiness in STEM fields. It discusses challenges in STEM education in the US and Canada, including a lack of computer science programs and high unemployment among youth. The initiative includes thought leadership activities to advocate for STEM, partnerships with non-profits supporting underserved groups, and a goIT program providing hands-on STEM learning to students. Feedback praised the company's leadership in driving research, convening partners, and developing solutions to fill STEM talent gaps through corporate involvement.
Understanding the Critical Trends Impacting Organizations in the Next Five YearsHolly Gage
The Forum Corporation (www.forum.com) recently conducted analysis of future trend research on the strategic issues that will most impact the global marketplace in the next one to five years. This presentation reveals our findings.
The document provides 160 potential topics for literature reviews across various business domains, including marketing, finance, leadership, marketing strategy, stress management, training and development, inventory management, economic issues, customer satisfaction, accounting, unemployment, consumer behaviour, motivation, customer perception, brand awareness, and mobile banking. The topics range from case studies of specific companies to analyzing trends within an industry or assessing the impact of various business strategies and organizational practices.
A Customer Centricity Paradox; Whitepaper by AcxiomVivastream
The survey found two key paradoxes around customer centricity: 1) While most marketers assessed their capabilities as high, few could successfully measure results at the customer level. 2) Many said they focused on building customer insights, but this did not align with their companies' investment strategies. Additionally, the survey showed most marketers struggle with integrating customer data across online and offline sources and measuring success at the individual customer level. However, marketers remain committed to improving customer centricity and see top companies as role models for enabling personalized experiences through aligned strategies and capabilities.
The document reports on a survey and case studies about companies' adoption of cloud applications. The survey included over 600 respondents from various regions and company sizes. Case studies included in-depth interviews with seven companies from various industries that had implemented cloud applications. The case studies found that cloud adoption provided benefits like reducing infrastructure costs, quickly scaling resources, and allowing faster development and implementation of new applications. Key challenges mentioned were overcoming security concerns and demonstrating early financial benefits of cloud.
The document summarizes key findings from PwC's 19th Annual Global CEO Survey, which interviewed 1,409 CEOs from 83 countries. CEOs are facing a complicated global environment with many uncertainties. They are less optimistic about global economic growth prospects and their own revenue growth. Top concerns include over-regulation, geopolitical uncertainty, and exchange rate volatility. While the US and China remain top markets, CEOs see opportunities in India, Brazil and other countries. They anticipate a shift towards a multi-polar world with multiple economic models, regionalization, and differing belief systems.
Client case studies: Where will your company find top talent? Look to the cloudPwC
A large entertainment, media & communications company found that its five semi-autonomous divisions each had its own vastly different talent management needs and processes, and that was a problem when it came to identifying and retaining top talent across all the operating units. Although the enterprise technically owned the core HR solution for four of the divisions, the support model was handled at the division level and did not use a Shared Services model, leading to inefficiencies and redundant efforts. The company wanted to develop standardized processes, procedures, and technologies across the divisions to create a cross-divisional view of talent focusing on operational excellence and employee engagement.
TCS 2021 Global Financial Leadership Study - The Next Era in Financial Planni...Tata Consultancy Services
Read TCS’ study to know how global finance leaders are utilizing cloud-based systems & data analytics in finance to plug FP&A gaps & achieve sustainable growth.
Some businesses are moving much faster and better and others. How are the leaders of the most digitally savvy companies different? We found that they share five traits, learn more about these traits.
This document summarizes findings from a study of over 12,000 C-suite executives from around the world. It finds that industry incumbents, rather than new entrants, are now seen as the leading drivers of disruption in most industries. While some predicted widespread disruption from digital technologies, the C-suites report more stability and less urgency to transform. The document identifies three archetypes of organizations - Reinventors, Practitioners, and Aspirations - based on their stage of digital reinvention. Reinventors are outperforming peers and see opportunities in ecosystems and partnerships. Many organizations are looking to platform business models. Disruption is ongoing but incumbents have strengthened their ability to transform themselves.
Strategic People Management for the 21st CenturyAdrian Boucek
The challenge from an HR standpoint is that 20th century tools and approaches don’t work in the fast-changing, 21st century workplace. Strategic people management – where HR initiatives are directly tied to business goals – is critical.
Business intelligence and analytics solutions can help organizations turn abundant data into actionable insights to make better business decisions. As data increases 650% over the next five years, these solutions can leverage big data to build customer insights, enhance customer experience, and understand customer behaviors. Enfathom helps organizations identify areas for new revenue and performance improvement by delivering data solutions to derive insight from data and achieve transformative business results such as improved customer relationships, profitability, and margins. Enfathom has delivered hundreds of solutions to large companies to improve processes like customer acquisition, reduce reporting redundancy by 70%, and conduct predictive modeling and statistical analysis.
Aligning Business and Technology for Competitive AdvantageDijitle
Until quite recently, I.T. has functioned primarily as a technology implementer for the business. it has focused on providing a robust infrastructure, along with the implementation and integration of package software to automate the main business processes. But now we have entered the age of digital business, where many businesses exist solely because of technologies – in many cases technology is now driving the business rather than being subservient to it.
Business Pulse - Dual perspectives on the top 10 risks and opportunities 2013...EY
Business Pulse explores the top 10 risks and opportunities faced by global organizations over the next few years.
Ernst & Young’s Business Pulse report is based on a large sample survey of companies in 21 countries and across various industry sectors.
The report takes the pulse of:
• Current thinking on risks and opportunities and emerging challenges
• Dual perspective on the themes arising from the top 10 lists
• Expectations from industry executives and Ernst & Young specialists
Read this presentation to conduct a self-assessment for your business and download the report at: http://goo.gl/CSKGQ
The document summarizes the key findings from a 2015 global survey on digital IQ. It identifies 10 attributes that correlate with stronger financial performance among digital leaders. These include having CEO commitment to digital, a shared digital strategy across executive teams, engaging external sources of innovation, making investments for competitive advantage, utilizing data to drive value, proactive cybersecurity planning, a multi-year digital roadmap, and consistently measuring returns on investments. The document also discusses trends around digital strategies, spending, roles and disruption within organizations as they pursue digital transformations.
Séptima Encuesta Mundial del Coeficiente Digital de las empresasPwC España
La Séptima Encuesta Mundial sobre el Coeficiente Digital en las empresas se ha realizado a partir de entrevistas a casi 2.000 directivos y líderes de IT de empresas de diez sectores en 51 países (entre las que se encuentran 70 compañías españolas). El informe mide el grado de digitalización de las compañías entendido por cómo estas afrontan, valoran e integran las tecnologías digitales en su organización -lo que hemos denominado el coeficiente digital- a partir de diez comportamientos digitales clave.
Australia’s Corporate Real Estate Trends, Getting the Strategy Right, reveals that the Australian CRE’s see their mandate as stronger than three years ago – 26% say much stronger and 40% say stronger. Find out more at http://globalcretrends.jll.com/Australia.php
The document provides four scenarios for how the business world may evolve by 2025. It identifies three main drivers of change: shifting geographies, blurring industry boundaries, and evolving digital behavior. Each scenario explores a different combination of how these drivers could play out, including "Global Bazaar," "Cautious Capitalism," "Territorial Dominance," and "Regional Marketplace." The scenarios are intended to help business leaders strategize and prepare for various plausible futures.
This document summarizes key findings from PwC's 18th Annual Global CEO Survey. The survey interviewed over 1,300 CEOs from 77 countries. Some of the main findings include:
1) 61% of CEOs see more opportunities for their businesses today than three years ago, while 59% see more threats. Many CEOs believe they can adapt to changing conditions.
2) CEO confidence in their own business growth prospects remains high despite concerns about the global economy and rising business risks. CEOs in Asia Pacific, North America, and the Middle East see the most opportunities.
3) To succeed, CEOs must focus on creating new opportunities through digital technologies rather than relying solely on market-led
One year ago business leaders’ feelings towards growth were sombre across the globe. A year later, and while Australian CEOs are feeling mildly more up-beat than their global peers, significant concerns still remain.
This year, we asked executives about their thoughts across key issues including partnerships, digital, talent and diversity, growth, capabilities, tax and regulation.
There is a dichotomy of perspectives across the board – with CEOs seeing as many threats to their business today as there are opportunities.
PwC's 18th Annual Global CEO Survey 2015: Exploring the importance of technol...James Woodworth
Rethinking the business you’re in
We live in an era of unprecedented digital change – the type of change that’s reshaping the relationship between customers and companies, breaking down the walls between industry sectors and, by extension, prompting forward-thinking CEOs to question the very business they’re in.
Watch this short video to hear about what CEOs had to say on the global economic outlook and their own growth prospects for the months and
http://bit.ly/CEO-Survey-jan15
Selon la 18e édition de l’étude mondiale annuelle « Global CEO Survey » de PwC, dans le cadre de laquelle plus de 1 300 dirigeants ont été interrogés, 37 % d’entre eux estiment que la croissance mondiale sera meilleure en 2015, contre 44 % l'année dernière. Cependant, ils restent confiants dans leur capacité à générer une croissance du chiffre d’affaires de leur propre entreprise (39%, un niveau identique à celui de l’année dernière).
Les dirigeants soulignent que les menaces auxquelles ils sont confrontés ont augmenté ces trois dernières années : ils insistent notamment sur la montée en force de la concurrence, avec un marché qui devient sans frontières et l’arrivée de nouveaux concurrents issus de secteurs d’activité différents.
Pour rester compétitifs, les dirigeants identifient trois leviers essentiels : la transformation digitale, le renforcement des partenariats et la diversité des talents.
Les résultats de cette étude sont rendus publics aujourd'hui à l'ouverture du Forum économique mondial à Davos, en Suisse.
Pour cette 18e édition de l’étude mondiale annuelle de PwC « Global CEO Survey », 1 322 interviews ont été conduites dans 77 countries entre septembre et décembre 2014. 459 entretiens ont été menés en Asie-Pacifique, 455 en Europe, 147 en Amérique du Nord, 167 en Amérique latine, 49 en Afrique et 45 au Moyen-Orient.
The document discusses findings from a study on Chief Information Officers (CIOs). Key findings include:
- Most CIOs are recruited externally rather than promoted internally. Internal candidates face slim chances of promotion to CIO.
- Failed IT projects and an inability to partner well with the business are the primary reasons for CIO failure. Nearly half of new CIOs inherit failing projects.
- The CIO's reporting line, whether to the CEO or CFO, influences where they focus IT's energies - on enterprise-wide value or cost reduction. Reporting to the CEO encourages a strategic focus while the CFO emphasizes costs.
- Experience in consulting or systems integration is common among CIOs
Los CEOs españoles aseguran que la tecnología es el factor disruptivo principal que impulsará la transformación de sus empresas en los próximos cinco años. Así lo afirma el 85% de los primeros ejecutivos españoles –y el 77% de los globales- en la XIX Encuesta Mundial de CEOs, elaborada por PwC y que se ha presentado en el Foro Económico Mundial de Davos.
19-ый Ежегодный опрос руководителей крупнейших компаний мираPwC Russia
PwC представляет результаты Ежегодного опроса руководителей крупнейших компаний мира, который в этом году получил название «Что такое “успех в бизнесе” в условиях меняющего мира? Попытка дать новое определение». В рамках данного исследования, результаты которого обнародованы на открытии Всемирного экономического форума в Давосе (Швейцария), было опрошено более 1 400 руководителей крупнейших компаний мира.
A Customer Centricity Paradox; Whitepaper by AcxiomVivastream
The survey found two key paradoxes around customer centricity: 1) While most marketers assessed their capabilities as high, few could successfully measure results at the customer level. 2) Many said they focused on building customer insights, but this did not align with their companies' investment strategies. Additionally, the survey showed most marketers struggle with integrating customer data across online and offline sources and measuring success at the individual customer level. However, marketers remain committed to improving customer centricity and see top companies as role models for enabling personalized experiences through aligned strategies and capabilities.
The document reports on a survey and case studies about companies' adoption of cloud applications. The survey included over 600 respondents from various regions and company sizes. Case studies included in-depth interviews with seven companies from various industries that had implemented cloud applications. The case studies found that cloud adoption provided benefits like reducing infrastructure costs, quickly scaling resources, and allowing faster development and implementation of new applications. Key challenges mentioned were overcoming security concerns and demonstrating early financial benefits of cloud.
The document summarizes key findings from PwC's 19th Annual Global CEO Survey, which interviewed 1,409 CEOs from 83 countries. CEOs are facing a complicated global environment with many uncertainties. They are less optimistic about global economic growth prospects and their own revenue growth. Top concerns include over-regulation, geopolitical uncertainty, and exchange rate volatility. While the US and China remain top markets, CEOs see opportunities in India, Brazil and other countries. They anticipate a shift towards a multi-polar world with multiple economic models, regionalization, and differing belief systems.
Client case studies: Where will your company find top talent? Look to the cloudPwC
A large entertainment, media & communications company found that its five semi-autonomous divisions each had its own vastly different talent management needs and processes, and that was a problem when it came to identifying and retaining top talent across all the operating units. Although the enterprise technically owned the core HR solution for four of the divisions, the support model was handled at the division level and did not use a Shared Services model, leading to inefficiencies and redundant efforts. The company wanted to develop standardized processes, procedures, and technologies across the divisions to create a cross-divisional view of talent focusing on operational excellence and employee engagement.
TCS 2021 Global Financial Leadership Study - The Next Era in Financial Planni...Tata Consultancy Services
Read TCS’ study to know how global finance leaders are utilizing cloud-based systems & data analytics in finance to plug FP&A gaps & achieve sustainable growth.
Some businesses are moving much faster and better and others. How are the leaders of the most digitally savvy companies different? We found that they share five traits, learn more about these traits.
This document summarizes findings from a study of over 12,000 C-suite executives from around the world. It finds that industry incumbents, rather than new entrants, are now seen as the leading drivers of disruption in most industries. While some predicted widespread disruption from digital technologies, the C-suites report more stability and less urgency to transform. The document identifies three archetypes of organizations - Reinventors, Practitioners, and Aspirations - based on their stage of digital reinvention. Reinventors are outperforming peers and see opportunities in ecosystems and partnerships. Many organizations are looking to platform business models. Disruption is ongoing but incumbents have strengthened their ability to transform themselves.
Strategic People Management for the 21st CenturyAdrian Boucek
The challenge from an HR standpoint is that 20th century tools and approaches don’t work in the fast-changing, 21st century workplace. Strategic people management – where HR initiatives are directly tied to business goals – is critical.
Business intelligence and analytics solutions can help organizations turn abundant data into actionable insights to make better business decisions. As data increases 650% over the next five years, these solutions can leverage big data to build customer insights, enhance customer experience, and understand customer behaviors. Enfathom helps organizations identify areas for new revenue and performance improvement by delivering data solutions to derive insight from data and achieve transformative business results such as improved customer relationships, profitability, and margins. Enfathom has delivered hundreds of solutions to large companies to improve processes like customer acquisition, reduce reporting redundancy by 70%, and conduct predictive modeling and statistical analysis.
Aligning Business and Technology for Competitive AdvantageDijitle
Until quite recently, I.T. has functioned primarily as a technology implementer for the business. it has focused on providing a robust infrastructure, along with the implementation and integration of package software to automate the main business processes. But now we have entered the age of digital business, where many businesses exist solely because of technologies – in many cases technology is now driving the business rather than being subservient to it.
Business Pulse - Dual perspectives on the top 10 risks and opportunities 2013...EY
Business Pulse explores the top 10 risks and opportunities faced by global organizations over the next few years.
Ernst & Young’s Business Pulse report is based on a large sample survey of companies in 21 countries and across various industry sectors.
The report takes the pulse of:
• Current thinking on risks and opportunities and emerging challenges
• Dual perspective on the themes arising from the top 10 lists
• Expectations from industry executives and Ernst & Young specialists
Read this presentation to conduct a self-assessment for your business and download the report at: http://goo.gl/CSKGQ
The document summarizes the key findings from a 2015 global survey on digital IQ. It identifies 10 attributes that correlate with stronger financial performance among digital leaders. These include having CEO commitment to digital, a shared digital strategy across executive teams, engaging external sources of innovation, making investments for competitive advantage, utilizing data to drive value, proactive cybersecurity planning, a multi-year digital roadmap, and consistently measuring returns on investments. The document also discusses trends around digital strategies, spending, roles and disruption within organizations as they pursue digital transformations.
Séptima Encuesta Mundial del Coeficiente Digital de las empresasPwC España
La Séptima Encuesta Mundial sobre el Coeficiente Digital en las empresas se ha realizado a partir de entrevistas a casi 2.000 directivos y líderes de IT de empresas de diez sectores en 51 países (entre las que se encuentran 70 compañías españolas). El informe mide el grado de digitalización de las compañías entendido por cómo estas afrontan, valoran e integran las tecnologías digitales en su organización -lo que hemos denominado el coeficiente digital- a partir de diez comportamientos digitales clave.
Australia’s Corporate Real Estate Trends, Getting the Strategy Right, reveals that the Australian CRE’s see their mandate as stronger than three years ago – 26% say much stronger and 40% say stronger. Find out more at http://globalcretrends.jll.com/Australia.php
The document provides four scenarios for how the business world may evolve by 2025. It identifies three main drivers of change: shifting geographies, blurring industry boundaries, and evolving digital behavior. Each scenario explores a different combination of how these drivers could play out, including "Global Bazaar," "Cautious Capitalism," "Territorial Dominance," and "Regional Marketplace." The scenarios are intended to help business leaders strategize and prepare for various plausible futures.
This document summarizes key findings from PwC's 18th Annual Global CEO Survey. The survey interviewed over 1,300 CEOs from 77 countries. Some of the main findings include:
1) 61% of CEOs see more opportunities for their businesses today than three years ago, while 59% see more threats. Many CEOs believe they can adapt to changing conditions.
2) CEO confidence in their own business growth prospects remains high despite concerns about the global economy and rising business risks. CEOs in Asia Pacific, North America, and the Middle East see the most opportunities.
3) To succeed, CEOs must focus on creating new opportunities through digital technologies rather than relying solely on market-led
One year ago business leaders’ feelings towards growth were sombre across the globe. A year later, and while Australian CEOs are feeling mildly more up-beat than their global peers, significant concerns still remain.
This year, we asked executives about their thoughts across key issues including partnerships, digital, talent and diversity, growth, capabilities, tax and regulation.
There is a dichotomy of perspectives across the board – with CEOs seeing as many threats to their business today as there are opportunities.
PwC's 18th Annual Global CEO Survey 2015: Exploring the importance of technol...James Woodworth
Rethinking the business you’re in
We live in an era of unprecedented digital change – the type of change that’s reshaping the relationship between customers and companies, breaking down the walls between industry sectors and, by extension, prompting forward-thinking CEOs to question the very business they’re in.
Watch this short video to hear about what CEOs had to say on the global economic outlook and their own growth prospects for the months and
http://bit.ly/CEO-Survey-jan15
Selon la 18e édition de l’étude mondiale annuelle « Global CEO Survey » de PwC, dans le cadre de laquelle plus de 1 300 dirigeants ont été interrogés, 37 % d’entre eux estiment que la croissance mondiale sera meilleure en 2015, contre 44 % l'année dernière. Cependant, ils restent confiants dans leur capacité à générer une croissance du chiffre d’affaires de leur propre entreprise (39%, un niveau identique à celui de l’année dernière).
Les dirigeants soulignent que les menaces auxquelles ils sont confrontés ont augmenté ces trois dernières années : ils insistent notamment sur la montée en force de la concurrence, avec un marché qui devient sans frontières et l’arrivée de nouveaux concurrents issus de secteurs d’activité différents.
Pour rester compétitifs, les dirigeants identifient trois leviers essentiels : la transformation digitale, le renforcement des partenariats et la diversité des talents.
Les résultats de cette étude sont rendus publics aujourd'hui à l'ouverture du Forum économique mondial à Davos, en Suisse.
Pour cette 18e édition de l’étude mondiale annuelle de PwC « Global CEO Survey », 1 322 interviews ont été conduites dans 77 countries entre septembre et décembre 2014. 459 entretiens ont été menés en Asie-Pacifique, 455 en Europe, 147 en Amérique du Nord, 167 en Amérique latine, 49 en Afrique et 45 au Moyen-Orient.
The document discusses findings from a study on Chief Information Officers (CIOs). Key findings include:
- Most CIOs are recruited externally rather than promoted internally. Internal candidates face slim chances of promotion to CIO.
- Failed IT projects and an inability to partner well with the business are the primary reasons for CIO failure. Nearly half of new CIOs inherit failing projects.
- The CIO's reporting line, whether to the CEO or CFO, influences where they focus IT's energies - on enterprise-wide value or cost reduction. Reporting to the CEO encourages a strategic focus while the CFO emphasizes costs.
- Experience in consulting or systems integration is common among CIOs
Los CEOs españoles aseguran que la tecnología es el factor disruptivo principal que impulsará la transformación de sus empresas en los próximos cinco años. Así lo afirma el 85% de los primeros ejecutivos españoles –y el 77% de los globales- en la XIX Encuesta Mundial de CEOs, elaborada por PwC y que se ha presentado en el Foro Económico Mundial de Davos.
19-ый Ежегодный опрос руководителей крупнейших компаний мираPwC Russia
PwC представляет результаты Ежегодного опроса руководителей крупнейших компаний мира, который в этом году получил название «Что такое “успех в бизнесе” в условиях меняющего мира? Попытка дать новое определение». В рамках данного исследования, результаты которого обнародованы на открытии Всемирного экономического форума в Давосе (Швейцария), было опрошено более 1 400 руководителей крупнейших компаний мира.
This document summarizes the key findings of the 2017 Harvey Nash/KPMG CIO Survey, which surveyed over 4,400 CIOs and technology leaders globally. The survey found that CIOs are helping their organizations navigate unprecedented levels of political, economic, and business uncertainty by focusing on stability and agility. Many CIOs are creating more nimble technology platforms and partnering with trusted organizations. The skills shortage continues to be a challenge, and digital strategies are becoming more common though change resistance remains an issue. CIO influence is growing as they help their organizations adapt to changing conditions.
The business landscape is being transformed by a series of megatrends, of which digital technology is already proving to be the most pervasive and potentially disruptive.
GT Events and Program Guide is a look ahead at the latest knowledge and insights available from Grant Thornton LLP. It includes a collection of our research, thought leadership and a schedule of upcoming webcasts and events.
The document summarizes the key findings of the Deloitte 2014 CIO Survey. It finds that while CIOs continue to prioritize supporting core IT services over growth initiatives, budgets are shifting slightly more toward change and growth activities. Adoption of technologies like analytics, mobile apps, and social media is increasing. However, innovation funding remains limited and CIOs have capability gaps in areas like emerging technologies and data monetization that inhibit strategic portfolio management and assessing investments based on risk versus reward. While delivery of IT services remains a top priority for CIOs, the survey suggests they could do more to drive technology-led growth.
The document discusses the economic outlook for 2024 and beyond, arguing that pursuing productivity gains through upskilling workers, optimizing capital investments, and operating with excellence can lead to either economic stagnation or a new era of abundance. It notes uncertainties around inflation, interest rates, and demographic shifts that may constrain growth. However, it asserts that accelerating productivity across companies similar to the 1990s US can boost overall economic performance and standards of living if business leaders actively pursue the "three-sided productivity opportunity" of changing how their organizations operate, investing in technology and innovation, and offsetting higher costs. The document aims to convince readers that prioritizing productivity is the best path forward for both business success and economic prosperity in 2024
CEO INSIGHTS 2024P O S I T I V E I N A N U N C E R TA I N WORLD: CONFIDENT C...HAMADI ASKRI
THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT & GETTING
BRIGHTER DESPITE INSTABILITY
Looking beyond current turbulence, CEOs of the world’s
largest companies are increasingly positive about the
prospects for growth and are positioning themselves —
and their workforces — to seize the opportunities that
AI brings, according to the results of our 2024 “CEO Insights”
study.
CIO Insights from the Global C-suite StudyCasey Lucas
Moving from the back office to the front lines - CIO insights from the Global C-suite Study
CIOs tell us that their place in the organizational pyramid has changed in the past five years. Many of them command more respect and possess more authority than before and they are working more closely with their C-suite colleagues.
GT Events & Program Guide: ForwardThinking October/November 2017Grant Thornton LLP
ForwardThinking is a look ahead at the latest knowledge and insights available from Grant Thornton LLP. It includes a collection of our research, thought leadership and a schedule of upcoming webcasts and events.
www.pwc.comhrsA look at the key workforce trends from a.docxericbrooks84875
www.pwc.com/hrs
A look at the key workforce
trends from around
the world using data
from PwC’s Saratoga
benchmarking database.
Key trends in
human capital 2012
A global perspective
2 Key trends in human capital 2012. A global perspective
About PwC Saratoga
PwC Saratoga is the recognised leader in the
measurement and benchmarking of human capital in
organisations, HR and finance function performance
and transformation. Our specialists help clients to
develop predictive analytics capability by identifying
connections between HR, people, functional and
organisational performance, using a range of
quantitative and qualitative tools. This is supported
by a global repository of metrics and qualitative best
practice information from more
than 2,400 organisations.
3Key trends in human capital 2012. A global perspective
Introduction 4
Global trends in human capital 6
A multi-speed global economy 8
Productivity gaps widen 12
A rocky road for rookies 16
Survivors disengaged 20
HR rising to the analytics challenge 25
Priorities for business 32
In conclusion 34
Behind the numbers 36
Contacts 37
Related PwC publications 38
Contents
4 Key trends in human capital 2012. A global perspective
Introduction
Welcome to the latest in PwC’s detailed studies of
Global Trends in Human Capital. In this fifth edition we
look more closely at how organisations and the global
workforce have been changed by the financial crisis
and economic downturn.
5
Our 2010 Global Trends paper was written
at a time of considerable upheaval, with
many organisations cutting back sharply
on costs and headcount as the recession
took hold. Two years on, business leaders
are more confident about the prospects
for growth, in spite of continued economic
turmoil. While competition is intense,
many organisations are emerging leaner
and more focused. The mantra is to
maximise return on investment (ROI)
in every area of the business, especially
human capital.
It’s all about talent management
In this quest for growth, talent
management remains a primary focus
area for business leaders. According to
our 15th Annual Global CEO Survey, 78%
of CEOs plan to make changes to talent
strategy in response to the global business
environment. There is a clear need for
professional skills and effective leadership
to operate in challenging markets, while
emerging markets require the talent to
deliver continued growth. But only 30%
of CEOs said they were confident that they
would have the talent they needed to grow
their organisation in the near future, and
31% said that talent constraints had already
hampered innovation at their organisation.
In such an environment, knowledge and
insight – in the form of human capital data
– is power. Human capital measurement
and analytics has progressed far in recent
years, evolving from the collection and
redistribution of basic workforce data
through HR systems to a more thoughtful
and .
Dealing in a digital world - strategies to future-proof your businessEY
As the world goes digital, developing innovation in-house is no longer enough, according to a new study from EY. Instead, with constraints around time and capital, non-tech firms are turning to mergers and acquisitions (M&A), joint ventures and alliances to acquire the innovation they need.
Estudo feito pela Oxford Economics
Talento Global de 2021 Como a nova geografia do talento vai transformar estratégias de recursos humanos
mudanças na oferta de talentos irá ocorrer durante a próxima década. Para completar os resultados
de nossa pesquisa quantitativa, foi realizada uma série de entrevistas em profundidade com HR
executivos de todo o mundo e chamou a experiência de nosso comitê de direção de RH.
Nossa pesquisa revela não só paisagem de amanhã para o talento global será
dramaticamente diferente do que a de hoje, mas que alguns países e Industries
precisam de se adaptar mais rapidamente para acomodar essas mudanças rápidas.
Executives seeking a digital business advantage should take a page from the playbook written by leaders across the Asia-Pacific region, according to finding from our primary research.
GT Events and Program Guide is a look ahead at the latest knowledge and insights available from Grant Thornton LLP. It includes a collection of our research, thought leadership and a schedule of upcoming webcasts and events.
Leading in extraordinary times, the 2015 US CEO SurveyOmar Toor
Learn how US CEOs are positioning for a new era where overseas business growth is balanced more evenly between developed and emerging economies, and mainstream adoption of digital technologies everywhere is surging.
Midsize businesses face unique challenges recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic that could impact their long-term success. While many have effectively adapted operations and processes, areas like skills development, technology adoption, and workforce strategies require ongoing focus. Specifically, less than 40% of respondents said they invest in reskilling programs critical for future growth. To stay competitive, midsize companies will need to accelerate digital investments and prioritize employee development while ensuring equitable support for all workers.
The document summarizes the key findings of a survey on corporate innovation conducted by The Boston Consulting Group. Some of the main points from the survey include:
- Innovation remains a priority for most companies, but fewer see it as a top priority compared to previous years due to economic uncertainty.
- Most companies plan to increase innovation spending in 2009 but are growing more cautious given the downturn. Some companies expect to reduce spending.
- Companies are increasingly leveraging rapidly developing economies for R&D and focusing more on innovation that lowers production costs.
- Risk aversion and lengthy development times are seen as the biggest obstacles to high returns on innovation spending. Customer satisfaction and revenue growth are the main metrics used
2013 q4 McKinsey quarterly - Strategy to beat the oddsAhmed Al Bilal
This document summarizes principles for companies to effectively implement social technologies internally and realize their full potential benefits. It recommends that companies: 1) Make social technologies central to work processes rather than extras; 2) Provide organizational support like training to foster adoption; 3) Experiment with social tools in a learning-focused way rather than top-down directives; 4) Track impact over time and evolve metrics as understanding improves. Case studies from MITRE, TD Bank, and Maersk Line illustrate applying these principles.
The document summarizes the key findings of the 2016 Harvey Nash / KPMG CIO Survey, the largest IT leadership survey worldwide. Some of the main findings include:
1) The CIO role is evolving from an "operational" to a "creative" and strategic role, with CIOs spending more time externally and influencing business strategies.
2) Operational priorities are declining in importance for CIOs as they focus more on innovation, relationships, and digital strategies.
3) Issues like the skills shortage, talent retention, and cybersecurity risks remain significant challenges for CIOs.
4) More organizations are developing digital strategies, with digital disruption coming from new products/services and
Similar to C-Suite Challenge 2018 Report: The most prevalent response related to managing talent! (20)
As CEO, you and only you can lead culture change in your business. Get it right and you’ll reap the rewards–for your company’s growth, for the bottom line, and for employee engagement. Get it wrong and it’s your reputation on the line.
The document discusses the three core traits of effective coaches, mentors, and leaders: compassion, curiosity, and courage. Compassion involves feeling for others and alleviating their pain with self-awareness and kindness. Curiosity incorporates creativity and exploring ideas through mindfulness and learning. Courage is doing the right thing while aware of risks, with clarity of values and resilience. These traits help stimulate and support developing the same in others through making better sense of their worlds and choices. A lack of any of these traits often underlies leadership failures.
The document summarizes a study that mapped the rich-club organization of hub regions in the human connectome (structural brain network). Researchers used diffusion tensor imaging data from 21 subjects to reconstruct whole-brain structural networks and examine their connectivity profiles. They identified a group of 12 strongly interconnected bihemispheric hub regions, including the precuneus, frontal and parietal cortices, hippocampus, putamen, and thalamus. Importantly, these hub regions were found to be more densely interconnected than expected based on their degree alone, together forming a rich club in the human connectome.
In its 13th annual Stress in AmericaTM survey, the American Psychological Association (APA) finds that while overall stress levels have not changed significantly over the past few years, the proportion of Americans who say they are experiencing stress about specific issues has risen over the past year. The Harris Poll conducted this year’s survey on behalf of APA from Aug. 1 to Sept. 3, 2019; the online survey included 3,617 adults ages 18 and older living in the U.S.
This document provides information about various assessments that can be used by executive coaches. It lists assessment name, publisher website, and Association of Corporate Executive Coaches (ACEC) members who are certified in each assessment. The assessments were selected based on criteria like statistical reliability, widespread use, international availability to coaches, ease of certification, and appropriateness for executive coaching. The document allows ACEC members to identify which assessments other members are certified in to facilitate collaboration or referral of clients.
The document discusses the Association of Corporate Executive Coaches (ACEC) and their certified Master Corporate Executive Coaches (MCEC). It outlines the qualifications, experience, and benefits of working with MCEC coaches. MCEC coaches have extensive leadership experience and credentials, including advanced degrees and publications. They bring diverse global experience and apply proven assessment tools and methodologies tailored to each client's needs. Organizations that hire MCEC coaches benefit from their demonstrated ability to drive tangible leadership development results and transform organizational culture.
That reality is starkly revealed in Korn Ferry’s latest examination of the skills future leaders need, as detailed in this executive summary. The findings of our report, The Self-Disruptive Leader, were based on analyzing the profiles of more than 150,000 leaders, as well as opinion research from 795 investors who fund outwardly “winning” organizations. Not only were investors of companies dissatisfied with what they saw (70% argued short-term pressures stripped leaders of the ability to push through innovation, digitization, and change), but they considered current leadership styles to be in urgent need of change. A surprising two-thirds (67%) identified current leadership norms as “not fit for the future.”
The MEECO Designation recognizes organizations that utilize executive coaching, employment sciences, and a focus on culture and organizational transformation. It aims to elevate executive coaches as strategic advisors for enterprises. The designation process evaluates organizations based on their transformation story, program design, measurements, sustainability, and inclusion. Past recipients include Mayo Clinic, Ford Motor Company, and universities. Benefits of receiving the designation include measurements, recruiting, research opportunities, connectivity with other designees, and marketing advantages.
“Change or fail,” said Art Peck, president, and chief executive officer of Gap Inc., which itself is in the midst of a radical transformation that will see the company split in two. Peck was repeating the words of Gap’s late founder, Don Fisher, but the sentiment was widely shared and very applicable to retail circa 2019.
Only a few years ago, investors focused on one thing: the potential return on investment. Now, in the age of the purpose movement, gender diversity issues, and other factors, communication and investor relations experts are realizing their firms need to tell a much broader story. “Numbers are only part of the story now,” says Marshall. “In today’s market, investors scrutinize a wider range of things like culture, diversity and inclusion, and environmental and social sustainability.”
This document discusses the importance of exit programs for retaining top talent and building brand ambassadors. It notes that voluntary turnover costs organizations over $1 trillion annually in the U.S. More than half of exiting employees indicate their manager could have done something to prevent them from leaving. The employee life cycle and managers play a key role in retention - managers need to have frequent conversations to understand employees and provide meaningful coaching. Fewer than half of exiting employees are satisfied with how their exit was handled. The document recommends organizations understand why top performers stay, gain employee perspectives on the exit experience, and conduct stay and exit interviews to improve retention and the employee experience.
In 2019, amid the current political and economic landscape, the North American workforce is seeking stability. Just 35 percent of employees plan to look for a new job according to data from a new study by Achievers, down drastically from 74 percent when asked the same question last year...
The document is a request for proposals from professional speakers for the 2019 MEECO Leadership Institute conference on "The Science behind Executive Coaching Transformation". It provides background information on the conference including expected attendance, relevant topics, and location. It outlines the general instructions for submitting a proposal, including deadlines and selection criteria. Specific instructions are provided for completing the proposal, including speaker information, presentation details, and a signed statement of understanding. Proposals are due by January 29, 2019 and will be evaluated based on their relevance to the conference topics and the speaker's experience.
The document is a request for proposals from professional speakers for the 2019 MEECO Leadership Institute conference on "The Science behind Executive Coaching Transformation". It provides instructions for submitting a proposal, including providing contact information, a title and 80-word description of the proposed presentation, the requested presentation length, and which conference track it would fit. Submitting speakers would present pro bono in exchange for exposure to attendees and members of the hosting organizations. Proposals are due by January 29, 2019 and will be evaluated on criteria like relevance to the conference topic and audience.
This document discusses the key ingredients needed to define a company's culture code. It begins by explaining that a culture code establishes guiding values and principles that give life and meaning to an organization. It then outlines five ingredients for a strong company culture: values, people, policies, perks/benefits, and workspace. For each ingredient, it provides examples from companies like Intacct, Zappos, and Glassdoor, and gives an action plan for developing that aspect of a culture code. The overall purpose is to help organizations attract and retain top talent by establishing a unique and compelling culture.
This document provides a 7-step template for creating a company culture code. Step 1 is to define the company mission and values based on the founders' vision. Step 2 describes the type of people that make up the company. Step 3 outlines core company policies around work culture. Step 4 lists employee perks and benefits. Step 5 describes the company workspace. Step 6 explains how employees develop their careers. Step 7 shares an employee quote about why they love working at the company.
AbstractGiven the prevalence of instrumental and positivistic accounts on coaching, our article aims to contribute to a critical theory of coaching by articulating two under-researched topics in the field: power and space. We do so by building on the Lefebvrian political approach to space; more specifically, we show that depending on the coach’s experience of the coaching space, three types of power relationships are produced within the coach–coachee–organization triad: independent, mediated, and parallel. Accordingly, the coaching space appears to be either a generator, supporter, or analyzer of power. Overall, by approaching coaching as a political space, we call for increased awareness of the conditions that facilitate the experience of the coaching space as empowering rather than limiting and controlling.
Dima LouisBeirut, Lebanon
Pauline Fatien DiochonSKEMA Business School - Université Côte d’Azur, France
Some organizations could be doing a better job of describing their value proposition to attract top talent. We have found clients are not optimizing their value proposition and need to enhance it in order to win in the War for Talent. This is particularly true since we are experiencing the lowest unemployment rate in the United States since 1969.
More from MEECO Leadership Development Institute (20)
Anny Serafina Love - Letter of Recommendation by Kellen Harkins, MS.AnnySerafinaLove
This letter, written by Kellen Harkins, Course Director at Full Sail University, commends Anny Love's exemplary performance in the Video Sharing Platforms class. It highlights her dedication, willingness to challenge herself, and exceptional skills in production, editing, and marketing across various video platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram.
Understanding User Needs and Satisfying ThemAggregage
https://www.productmanagementtoday.com/frs/26903918/understanding-user-needs-and-satisfying-them
We know we want to create products which our customers find to be valuable. Whether we label it as customer-centric or product-led depends on how long we've been doing product management. There are three challenges we face when doing this. The obvious challenge is figuring out what our users need; the non-obvious challenges are in creating a shared understanding of those needs and in sensing if what we're doing is meeting those needs.
In this webinar, we won't focus on the research methods for discovering user-needs. We will focus on synthesis of the needs we discover, communication and alignment tools, and how we operationalize addressing those needs.
Industry expert Scott Sehlhorst will:
• Introduce a taxonomy for user goals with real world examples
• Present the Onion Diagram, a tool for contextualizing task-level goals
• Illustrate how customer journey maps capture activity-level and task-level goals
• Demonstrate the best approach to selection and prioritization of user-goals to address
• Highlight the crucial benchmarks, observable changes, in ensuring fulfillment of customer needs
At Techbox Square, in Singapore, we're not just creative web designers and developers, we're the driving force behind your brand identity. Contact us today.
At Techbox Square, in Singapore, we're not just creative web designers and developers, we're the driving force behind your brand identity. Contact us today.
Implicitly or explicitly all competing businesses employ a strategy to select a mix
of marketing resources. Formulating such competitive strategies fundamentally
involves recognizing relationships between elements of the marketing mix (e.g.,
price and product quality), as well as assessing competitive and market conditions
(i.e., industry structure in the language of economics).
Structural Design Process: Step-by-Step Guide for BuildingsChandresh Chudasama
The structural design process is explained: Follow our step-by-step guide to understand building design intricacies and ensure structural integrity. Learn how to build wonderful buildings with the help of our detailed information. Learn how to create structures with durability and reliability and also gain insights on ways of managing structures.
Taurus Zodiac Sign: Unveiling the Traits, Dates, and Horoscope Insights of th...my Pandit
Dive into the steadfast world of the Taurus Zodiac Sign. Discover the grounded, stable, and logical nature of Taurus individuals, and explore their key personality traits, important dates, and horoscope insights. Learn how the determination and patience of the Taurus sign make them the rock-steady achievers and anchors of the zodiac.
LA HUG - Video Testimonials with Chynna Morgan - June 2024Lital Barkan
Have you ever heard that user-generated content or video testimonials can take your brand to the next level? We will explore how you can effectively use video testimonials to leverage and boost your sales, content strategy, and increase your CRM data.🤯
We will dig deeper into:
1. How to capture video testimonials that convert from your audience 🎥
2. How to leverage your testimonials to boost your sales 💲
3. How you can capture more CRM data to understand your audience better through video testimonials. 📊
How MJ Global Leads the Packaging Industry.pdfMJ Global
MJ Global's success in staying ahead of the curve in the packaging industry is a testament to its dedication to innovation, sustainability, and customer-centricity. By embracing technological advancements, leading in eco-friendly solutions, collaborating with industry leaders, and adapting to evolving consumer preferences, MJ Global continues to set new standards in the packaging sector.
Tata Group Dials Taiwan for Its Chipmaking Ambition in Gujarat’s DholeraAvirahi City Dholera
The Tata Group, a titan of Indian industry, is making waves with its advanced talks with Taiwanese chipmakers Powerchip Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (PSMC) and UMC Group. The goal? Establishing a cutting-edge semiconductor fabrication unit (fab) in Dholera, Gujarat. This isn’t just any project; it’s a potential game changer for India’s chipmaking aspirations and a boon for investors seeking promising residential projects in dholera sir.
Visit : https://www.avirahi.com/blog/tata-group-dials-taiwan-for-its-chipmaking-ambition-in-gujarats-dholera/
Part 2 Deep Dive: Navigating the 2024 Slowdownjeffkluth1
Introduction
The global retail industry has weathered numerous storms, with the financial crisis of 2008 serving as a poignant reminder of the sector's resilience and adaptability. However, as we navigate the complex landscape of 2024, retailers face a unique set of challenges that demand innovative strategies and a fundamental shift in mindset. This white paper contrasts the impact of the 2008 recession on the retail sector with the current headwinds retailers are grappling with, while offering a comprehensive roadmap for success in this new paradigm.
2. c-suite challenge 2018 research report www.conferenceboard.org2
How the C-Suite Is Responding
to the 2018 Global Outlook
Optimism Reigns
Global businesses appear to be starting 2018 in a more optimistic mood compared to
recent years. Global growth in 2017 exceeded expectations, and The Conference Board
Economic Outlook projects the global economy to carry forward its current momentum
to generate a 3 percent growth rate in 2018, compared to the previous five-year average
of 1.8 percent (2012-2017). While the growth path for mature markets is solid in the short
term, a slowdown is likely later in the decade. Emerging markets will continue to gain
some strength in 2018, but there are significant differences across countries.1
However, it is possible our projection of 3 percent growth misses the impact of a dramatic
breakthrough in new technologies, and the global economy could potentially move
beyond 3 percent growth. That growth would come mostly from a productivity boost
supported by other qualitative growth factors such as talent and digital transformation.
Risks Remain
Despite the optimism as concerns over global recession fade, the global business
environment is far from a proverbial bed of roses. Downside risks caused by a
continuation of geopolitical and social tensions (including growing income and wealth
inequality), uncertainty around global policy issues, labor market imbalances and talent
shortages, and the disruption caused by emerging technologies associated with the
New Digital Economy are casting a shadow over the feel-good global growth party.
The uncertainty over government policies that may hinder global market access and the
rising anti-globalization and populist sentiments that seemed to plague the business
environment in 2017 remain and are, in some cases, intensifying.
Outdated Strategies Founder
These results as well as insights from our other research on digital transformation show
that the impact of the New Digital Economy is clearly being felt in the daily processes
and practices of organizations, workplace structures and business models, reporting
relationships, information sharing, customer interactions, the quest for tech-savvy talent,
and through the emergence of new competitors from every part of the globe. True
digital transformation—the ability of an organization to leverage these new technologies
and the data they produce to connect organizations, people, physical assets, and
processes to drive growth and productivity—requires a deep cultural change that
forces organizations to openly question their most basic beliefs and assumptions and to
reengineer business models and innovation processes.
1 Bart van Ark, Ataman Ozyildirim, Abdul Erumban, and Klaas de Vries, Global Economic Outlook 2018,
The Conference Board, November 2017.
3. www.conferenceboard.org c-suite challenge 2018 research report 3
However, many organizations, especially “digital immigrants,” continue to struggle on
their digital transformation journeys. They remain trapped in legacy systems and an
outdated mindset when it comes to everything from product development to capital
expenditure allocations to interactions with customers. Digital transformation stretches
across the value chain and touches every aspect of business operations. It requires an
enterprise-wide approach to strategy and systemic change, along with a holistic vision
that engages and energizes even those risk-averse disbelievers within the organization.
In other words, in many instances, it calls for a reinvention of the organization from the
bottom up and the top down.2
New Strategies Emerge
The questions every organization needs to address: How is our organization reinventing
itself for the digital age? How is our organization responding to the challenges of digital
transformation in such areas as resource allocation and investment decisions, addressing
skill shortages, managing key talent, creating a new culture and innovative business
models, and driving greater productivity to ensure a viable and competitive future?
The results of our C-Suite Challenge™
2018 survey show that to meet the digital
transformation challenge, our CEO respondents are focused on building leadership
teams of strategic thinkers who are adaptable, entrepreneurial, and capable of inspiring
employees. They are dedicated to the creation of innovative, customer-centric, and
inclusive workplace environments within their organizations. Meanwhile, executives
slightly down the ladder in the C-Suite are embracing the highly tactical strategy side of
organization building to support this bigger vision.
Culture Rules
Results tell us that CEOs are seeking an open, safe, and transparent culture of open
feedback and are focused on “democratizing” development; not only improving
leadership development programs, but enhancing employee skill training and
development at all levels of the organization. As in past years, leadership development,
from frontline managers to senior leaders, is a top Human Capital strategy, reflecting
the concern for effective senior leaders. This concern is particularly acute in Asia, where
many emerging leaders have not yet experienced all economic cycles in their relatively
brief careers, and in the United States, where leadership bench strength concerns are
exacerbated by the continued exodus of the most senior leaders. Both US and EU CEOs
are more concerned about succession planning than are their non-Western counterparts.
A desire for organizational cultures that are inclusive, engaged, high-performance,
customer-focused, and resilient is signaled throughout the responses to this year’s survey.
Probably no signal is stronger than the desire for a culture of innovation, which is the
number one Innovation strategy in every region (Asia is the one exception, where it is
third), every industry, every size company, and with CEOs and C-Suite executives alike.
CHROs go further, indicating that their very next strategy is to hold leaders accountable
for behaviors that foster a culture of innovation.
2 Charles Mitchell, Beyond Technology: Building a New Organizational Culture to Succeed in an Era of Digital
Transformation, The Conference Board, January 2017.
4. c-suite challenge 2018 research report www.conferenceboard.org4
Key Insights
An analysis of CEO and C-Suite responses to our 2018 C-Suite Challenge survey shows
organizations acknowledging the need for radical change and reinvention
Tight labor markets intensify talent concerns and have
organizations rethinking the future workforce
An agile organization is built on a foundation of effective
change leadership, employee resilience, and an open, speak-up
culture and supported by a world-class data analytics function
Creating new value amid the rise of disruptive technologies is
posing a unique set of risk and opportunities for organizations
Recession fears recede, but concerns over global trade and
income inequality rise
A vision for leaders in a digital future: they must be
adaptable, engaging and inspiring, and strategic thinkers
While building an innovative culture is a top priority, measuring
innovation is a problematic gap for many organizations
The political realities in Washington are driving a unique set of
concerns for CEOs in the US
CEOs perceive their organizations to be doing more to
nurture digital talent and leaders than do other C-Suite
executives, especially CHROs
5. www.conferenceboard.org c-suite challenge 2018 research report 5
Hot-Button Issues
Table 1 As concerns about global recession fade, issues around talent shortages and the disruption caused
by new technologies move to the fore. CEOs see a mandate to create new business models as their concern
over new competitors grows.
CEO
HOT-BUTTON ISSUES* Global US Asia Europe
Latin
America CFO CHRO
Failure to attract/retain top talent 1 1 1 2 1 1 1
Creating new business models because of
disruptive technologies
2 2 2 3 2 2 2
Volatility in cash flow 3 4 3 7 3 3 7
New competitors globally 4 7 5 1 4 4 8
Developing "Next Gen" leaders 5 3 9 6 5 5 3
Cybersecurity 6 6 11 4 7 6 9
Income inequality/disparity 7 13 4 9 6 18 5
Threats to global trade systems 8 10 10 16 12 8 15
Health care benefits for employees 9 5 15 17 14 21 10
Failure to devise an effective internal performance
measurement system for employees
10 12 8 20 11 11 11
Workforce diversity 11 14 13 14 9 14 4
Political instability/conflict in Asia-Pacific 12 22 7 19 17 20 12
Rebuilding public trust in business 13 16 16 13 10 24 22
Corporate tax reform 14 11 12 25 18 12 24
Economic uncertainty in China 15 20 6 26 25 13 20
Outdated/insufficient national infrastructure 16 15 22 11 16 23 19
Erosion of/declining trust in political and
policy institutions in the US
17 8 23 28 13 16 13
Wage inflation 18 17 14 23 20 19 17
Global recession 19 21 20 12 19 7 18
Currency volatility 20 25 19 15 15 9 14
Aging demographic and declining birthrate in
developed countries
21 18 21 10 21 15 25
Labor relations 22 27 17 22 8 17 6
Financial instability in Europe 23 23 24 5 26 10 26
US developing policy in health care and tax reform 24 9 28 27 23 22 21
Chinese international economic expansion 25 28 18 21 24 27 23
Effects of Brexit 26 24 26 8 27 26 27
Terrorism 27 19 25 18 22 25 16
US exit from Paris climate accord 28 26 27 24 27 28 28
n=506 n=105 n=157 n=71 n=85 n=112 n=96
* We define hot-button issues as short-term events, issues, and situations that CEOs and C-Suite executives believe will require a special focus in the coming
year. These include macroeconomic and sociopolitical events, uncertainties, and risks as well as internal stress points.
Source: The Conference Board, 2018
6. c-suite challenge 2018 research report www.conferenceboard.org6
Human Capital
Importance of Building an Open, Inclusive, Transparent Workplace Culture
What CEOs’ and C-Suite executives’ selected strategies for meeting the Human Capital challenge and
responses to special questions about organizational practices are telling us:
• CEOs are seeking an open, safe, and transparent culture of feedback by encouraging more effective
communication up, down, and across the organization.
• They are focused on “democratizing” development, not only improving leadership development
programs, but enhancing employee skill training and development at all levels of the organization.
The Challenge of Developing and Engaging Talent for the Digital Era
Designing for agility and digital adaptability requires organizations to rethink how they recruit and develop
talent and to embrace new ways of working. As a result, organizations are likely to have an ever-smaller cohort
of full-time workers, supported by contingent or flexible workers on project teams. Responses to our C-Suite
Challenge survey this year support this conclusion.
The Successful Digital Leader
Table 2 Successful leaders of digital transformation need to be strategic thinkers, as well as adaptable,
inspiring, and engaging.
Based on the following leadership attributes, rank the top 5 attributes according to how critical they are for leaders driving
enterprise-wide transformation. In your judgment, successful leaders of digital transformation will be:
CEO
LEADERSHIP TRAITS Global US China Asia Europe
Latin
America CFO CHRO
A strategic thinker 1 1 2 1 4 3 2 4
Highly adaptable 2 2 10 2 5 1 3 2
Entrepreneurial (creates business
value/new business models)
3 6 3 3 1 5 4 7
Inspiring and engaging 4 3 7 7 2 2 1 1
Emotionally intelligent 5 4 1 8 3 4 5 3
A driver of collaboration 6 5 6 5 6 6 8 5
Learning agile 7 9 11 4 7 7 10 6
A driver of innovation 8 8 8 6 8 8 6 9
Comfortable with ambiguity 9 7 9 11 9 9 7 8
Inclusive 10 10 12 9 12 11 12 10
Culturally dexterous 11 11 4 10 10 12 11 11
Technically savvy 12 12 5 12 11 10 9 12
n=489 n=102 n=100 n=147 n=68 n=84 n=111 n=100
Source: The Conference Board, 2018
7. www.conferenceboard.org c-suite challenge 2018 research report 7
Table 3 CEOs want to create and maintain an open, safe, and transparent culture where effective
feedback can flourish. They are focused on “democratizing” development: not only improving
leadership development programs, but enhancing employee skill training and development at
all levels of the organization.
CEO
HUMAN CAPITAL STRATEGIES 2018 Global US Asia Europe
Latin
America CHRO
Communicate effectively from all levels (up,
down, and across); communicate consistently and
transparently
1 1 4 1 1 4
Enhance effectiveness of the senior management
team
2 2 1 5 4 6
Provide employee training and development 3 4 3 3 6 11
Encourage an open, safe, and transparent speak-up
culture
4 3 7 2 5 7
Improve performance management processes and
accountability
5 10 2 14 3 8
Improve leadership development programs 6 6 5 7 2 1
Integrate engagement with all business functions to
shape business strategy and drive performance
7 11 6 6 8 3
Improve succession planning for current and future
needs
8 5 14 4 9 2
Improve corporate brand and employee value
propositions to attract or retain top talent
9 12 8 9 14 5
Increase efforts to retain top talent (i.e., those with
skills critical to the execution of current and future
strategies)
10 9 11 12 7 14
Hold senior leaders and frontline supervisors
accountable for engagement
11 7 13 10 11 12
Improve effectiveness of frontline supervisors and
managers
12 8 12 16 10 9
Develop clear career paths for all levels of employees 13 15 9 8 12 13
Focus on internally developed talent to fill key roles 14 14 10 13 13 15
Increase diversity/inclusion and cross-cultural
competencies
15 13 15 11 15 10
Allocate more resources to recruit qualified workers
in areas and industries where labor shortages are
growing
16 16 16 15 16 16
n=549 n=103 n=187 n=69 n=87 n=99
Source: The Conference Board, 2018
8. c-suite challenge 2018 research report www.conferenceboard.org8
Brave New World of Work
Table 4 As part of the reinvention of the digitally transformed organization,
the workforce of the future will rely more heavily on contingent and nontraditional
labor pools as well as automation and robots.
CHRO
Strongly/
somewhat
agree
Neither agree
nor disagree
Somewhat/
strongly
disagree
I anticipate that our workforce will be predominantly
comprised of traditional, full-time employees
I anticipate that the percentage of directly hired contingent
workers and freelancers will increase
I anticipate that the percentage of workers from managed
service providers will increase
I anticipate that the percentage of outsourcing partners and/
or off-shoring partners will increase
I anticipate that the percentage of digital labor (Robotic
Process Automation (RPA), bots) will increase
I anticipate that work will increasingly be done via a
crowd-sourced community of customers and consumers
I don't anticipate any appreciable difference from the
workforce of today
n=549
Source: The Conference Board, 2018
41.0% 10.1% 48.8%
79.6 15.3 5.1
64.3 28.7 7.0
58.7 22.3 18.9
77.1 16.4 6.5
48.9 37.5 13.6
11.8 11.6 76.7
n=549
Table 5 While the workforce of the future will present its own unique set of
challenges, one constant will remain: the need to find and retain skilled workers.
What are your primary concerns with leveraging nontraditional employees?
Select top 3 concerns.
CEO CHRO
Finding workers with appropriate skills 1 1
Engagement and retention of nontraditional employees 3 2
Managing customer-facing interactions appropriately 2 5
Sharing of intellectual property and knowledge 5 3
Engagement and retention of traditional, full-time employees 4 6
Legal issues, labor laws, and government regulations 6 4
High cost rate of nontraditional employees 7 7
n=516 n=99
Source: The Conference Board, 2018
9. www.conferenceboard.org c-suite challenge 2018 research report 9
Innovation
Innovation Driving Growth
What CEOs’ and C-Suite executives’ selected strategies for meeting the Innovation challenge and responses to
special questions about innovation within their organizations are telling us:
• C-Suite executives far and away identify revenue growth as the most valuable outcome of their
organization’s innovation efforts. There is also recognition of the importance of an innovative brand to
talent recruitment and retention. Innovation as a cost saver appears near the bottom of the outcome list.
• Less than half of CEOs globally (48.2 percent) see their organization as a technology leader in their
industries, and less than 10 percent say they are “extremely satisfied” with their organization’s ability to
innovate. This lackluster assessment underscores the sense of urgency organizations feel about improving
innovation capabilities and culture to be competitive and improve innovation outcomes.
• Measurement remains an issue. The Conference Board research shows that companies that are high
innovators not only have leaders dedicated to innovation who build collaborative cultures, but they have
developed a system of metrics to measure progress.3
However, in our C-Suite Challenge survey, just less
than half of our CEO and just 37 percent of C-Suite executive respondents agree that their organizations
actually have a process to measure innovation.
3 Victor Assad, C. Brooke Dobni, Ed Colby, and Ataman Ozyildirim, Insights from Highly Innovative Companies: Results from The Conference Board
and InnovationOne Global State of Innovation Survey 2017, The Conference Board, November 2017.
Table 6 Creating a culture of innovation, expanding organizations’ innovation ecosystems, and focusing on a
user-centric approach are key strategies to improve innovation outcomes.
CEO
INNOVATION STRATEGIES 2018 Global US Asia Europe
Latin
America CHRO
Create a culture of innovation that encourages cooperation across
functions and business units and promotes risk taking
1 1 3 1 1 1
Expand innovation ecosystem: by engaging in strategic alliances with
customers, suppliers, and/or other business partners
2 2 2 3 3 9
Adopt a user-centric design approach to innovation to develop deeper
understanding of customer need
3 4 1 5 8 4
As part of long-term vision, emphasize creativity and/or innovation as a
corporate value or principle
4 5 4 2 4 8
Develop managers and leaders to promote idea sharing in teams 5 6 6 6 2 3
Invest more in new technologies (A.I. and cognitive computing) to
enhance R&D efforts
6 8 5 4 6 6
Hold leaders accountable for behaviors that foster a culture of innovation 7 3 10 12 5 2
Develop, communicate, and reinforce specific, clear innovation goals
and potential associated with specific roles and functions to enhance
innovation outcomes
8 7 9 8 7 12
Invest more in developing innovation skills for all employees 9 9 8 9 9 5
Ensure more diversity and inclusion on innovation teams and projects 10 11 7 10 10 7
Develop a comprehensive enterprise-wide digitization strategy across
functions
11 12 11 7 12 11
Ensure that the performance appraisal system acknowledges that
failure and iteration are often necessary aspects of innovation success
12 10 12 11 11 10
Establish clear policies for data gathering (internal and external) that
adhere to privacy rules
13 13 13 13 13 13
n=544 n=104 n=187 n=69 n=87 n=99
Source: The Conference Board, 2018
10. c-suite challenge 2018 research report www.conferenceboard.org10
Table 7 C-Suite executives identify topline revenue growth as the most important innovation outcome for their
organizations. They also recognize that an innovative brand can be an advantage in talent recruitment and retention.
What are 3 most valuable outcomes of innovation for your organization?
INNOVATION OUTCOMES C-Suite
Revenue growth 1
Enhanced ability to achieve the company's strategic vision 2
Increased marketplace power relative to competitors 3
A balanced portfolio of innovation projects under way 4
Profit growth 5
Increased ability to recruit/retain top talent (employer of
choice for top talent)
6
INNOVATION OUTCOMES C-Suite
Increase in market capitalization (market value) 7
Increased ROI 8
Enhanced company reputation 9
Increase in Net Promoter Score 10
Cost savings 11
Increase in number of projects in the innovation pipeline 12
Increased ability to secure necessary capital from investors 13
n=74
Source: The Conference Board, 2018
Table 8 C-Suite executives’ satisfaction with their organizations’ ability to innovate is underwhelming; one clear
gap—processes that can accurately measure innovation capabilities and outcomes within organizations.
CEO CFO CHRO
Overall, how satisfied are you with
your company's ability to innovate?
Extremely satisfied 7.2 9.3 8.9
Moderately satisfied 43.1 37.2 45.4
My organization is a technology
leader in its industry
Strongly/somewhat agree 48.2 39.7 43.1
Neither agree nor disagree 24.2 26.8 24.2
Somewhat/strongly disagree 27.6 33.5 32.8
My organization has a process to
measure innovation
Strongly/somewhat agree 44.8 31.0 35.5
Neither agree nor disagree 28.4 33.4 29.2
Somewhat/strongly disagree 26.9 35.6 35.3
My organization fosters a culture
of diversity and inclusion
Strongly/somewhat agree 77.2 73.5 82.0
Neither agree nor disagree 17.6 16.2 14.3
Somewhat/strongly disagree 5.3 10.3 3.7
My organization promotes a
culture of continuous learning
Strongly/somewhat agree 88.9 77.7 93.0
Neither agree nor disagree 7.8 11.9 5.2
Somewhat/strongly disagree 3.3 10.3 1.8
My organization is willing to invest
in anticipation of returns over 3-5
year strategic horizon
Strongly/somewhat agree 73.1 75.8 69.3
Neither agree nor disagree 17.4 11.4 21.0
Somewhat/strongly disagree 9.4 12.9 9.7
n=549
Source: The Conference Board, 2018
11. www.conferenceboard.org c-suite challenge 2018 research report 11
Operational Excellence
Building a High-Performance Culture
What CEOs’ and C-Suite executives’ selected strategies for meeting the Operational Excellence challenge and
responses to special questions about operations and culture within their organizations are telling us:
• An improving global economic outlook has reduced the focus on cost controls.
• Globally, CEOs are focused on building a culture of excellence that revolves around a framework of:
®® Improving organizational agility and flexibility
®® Seeking better alignment between strategy, objectives, and organizational capabilities
®® Investing more in new technologies to improve efficiencies and counter labor and
skill shortages
®® Raising employee engagement and resilience to improve performance
Table 9 An improving global economic outlook has reduced the focus on cost controls globally, but strategic
priorities on how to achieve operational excellence vary considerably by region.
CEO
OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE STRATEGIES 2018 Global US Asia Europe
Latin
America CFO CHRO
Improve our organizational agility/flexibility 1 2 5 1 1 2 7
Seek better alignment between strategy, objectives, and
organizational capabilities
2 3 1 7 6 11 1
Invest more in new technologies 3 9 4 2 3 5 8
Raise employee engagement to drive productivity 4 5 6 4 4 1 2
Foster process of continual improvement (lean Six Sigma,
etc.)
5 4 7 5 5 7 6
Improve our use of big data analysis for strategic planning 6 8 3 11 11 4 4
Better align compensation and incentives with business
performance
7 11 2 14 8 8 3
Redesign business processes to strengthen digital
transformation
8 7 9 3 2 3 9
Improve goal setting for individuals to link to
organizational objectives
9 6 8 10 10 6 11
Create/maintain a culture of accountability 10 1 10 6 7 12 5
Support employee resiliency to adapt and support
change efforts
11 13 11 9 13 14 10
Assess vulnerability of current business model 12 11 12 13 14 9 12
Focus on reduction of baseline costs 13 10 15 12 9 10 13
Develop local management talent for top roles 14 14 13 8 12 13 14
Reassess the strategy with regard to the global supply
chain and its implications for operations
15 15 14 15 15 15 15
n=546 n=104 n=187 n=69 n=87 n=113 n=99
Source: The Conference Board, 2018
12. c-suite challenge 2018 research report www.conferenceboard.org12
What Defines Agility?
We asked CEOs and C-Suite executives to identify the top five traits, competencies, and characteristics
they believe are most critical to becoming a truly agile organization. It comes down to a cadre of effective
and engaged change leaders dealing with resilient employees who adapt to change. But building a resilient
workforce doesn’t happen overnight. Employees need to be given the tools and training to develop the
mindset to deal with change effectively.
Table 10 Effective change leadership, employee resilience, and an open, transparent,
speak-up culture supported by a world-class data analytics function are critical
components of an agile culture.
Please identify the top 5 traits/competencies/characteristics that you think are most critical to becoming
a truly agile business organization.
TRAITS, COMPETENCIES, CHARACTERISTICS OF AN
AGILE ORGANIZATION CEO CFO CHRO
Effective and engaged change leaders 1 2 1
Resilient employees/individuals that adapt to change 2 5 5
Open and transparent speak-up culture 3 6 3
Communicate effectively from all levels (up, down, and across); communicate
consistently and transparently
4 1 4
Effective use of big data analytics to inform decision making 5 7 2
Highly motivated/engaged workforce 6 4 6
Flat organizational structure to encourage less hierarchy and faster decision
making at all levels
7 9 7
Robust competitive and market intelligence to monitor external environment 8 10 8
Ability to reallocate existing resources when business needs arise 9 8 11
Listening to the customer first and foremost 10 3 9
Ability to fail fast without career derailment 11 11 15
Elimination of functional silos 12 14 10
Ability to access external network for new ideas and problem solving 13 17 18
Willingness to revise your core business assumptions about your industry 14 12 13
A diverse and inclusive corporate culture 15 16 12
Speed in testing/analyzing potential proactive responses to new market
conditions
16 13 16
Ability to add new/additional resources, increase budgets, as soon as
business needs arise
17 15 17
Flexible reward/compensation plans adjusted during the course of a year 18 18 14
Efficient use of flexible, contingent, temporary labor forces 19 19 19
n=544 n=113 n=99
Source: The Conference Board, 2018
13. www.conferenceboard.org c-suite challenge 2018 research report 13
Sustainability
Sustainability as a Driver of Growth and Engagement
What CEOs’ and C-Suite executives’ selected strategies for meeting the Sustainability challenge and responses to
special questions about digital transformation and sustainability are telling us:
• There is a commitment to support an authentic brand identity and commercial value proposition by
embedding sustainability goals into strategic objectives.
• To back up the inclusion of sustainability goals in strategic objections, CEOs see a need for more engage-
ment and better communication with stakeholders to balance short-term performance pressures with
longer-term sustainability goals.
• To appeal to new generations of workers and to support recruitment and retention of millennials who
value corporate mission and authentic brands, CEOs recognize the value of sustainability. Leveraging an
organization’s sustainability brand can provide a competitive edge when it comes to attracting and retaining
quality talent.
As they reinvent their organizations in the digital age, CEOs see digital technologies and digital transformation as
significant enablers of their sustainability strategies.
Table 11 CEOs are committed to supporting an authentic brand identity by embedding sustainability goals into
strategic objectives. They also see the need for more engagement with stakeholders to better balance short-
term performance pressures with long-term sustainability goals.
CEO
SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGIES 2018 Global US Asia Europe
Latin
America C-Suite*
Incorporate sustainability goals into corporate strategic objectives 1 1 1 2 3 3
Ensure sustainability is part of the corporate brand identity and the
commercial value proposition
2 2 3 1 1 1
Incorporate sustainability into company risk management strategy 3 8 2 6 4 4
Engage with stakeholders to ensure outside-in perspective in market
development decisions and to balance short-term performance
pressures with long-term sustainability goals
4 6 4 3 2 6
Emphasize sustainability values in talent recruiting and leadership
development
5 3 5 7 6 9
Embed sustainability into business strategy via concrete actions (e.g.,
investment and M&A decisions, procurement objectives, business
partner interactions, etc.)
6 4 6 5 8 2
Incorporate sustainability goals into C-Suite and employee
performance objectives
7 7 8 9 9 5
Embed sustainability into innovation/R&D process (e.g., through
specific "stage-gate" criteria and/or developing a portfolio of
sustainable products/services)
8 10 7 8 10 8
Increase the time with the board of directors discussing business
risks–and especially opportunities–driven by climate change, natural
resource constraints, and other sustainability factors
9 9 10 4 7 7
Align corporate philanthropy with business strategy 10 5 9 10 5 10
Strengthen alignment of business strategy with the United Nations
Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs)
11 11 11 11 11 11
n=534 n=101 n=184 n=69 n=86 n=17
* Excluding CEOs. Source: The Conference Board, 2018
14. c-suite challenge 2018 research report www.conferenceboard.org14
Table 12 Digital technologies and digital transformation are having a significant positive impact on
sustainability strategies.
CEO CFO Other C-Suite C-Suite
Digital transformation is a significant enabler of our sustainability strategy
Strongly/somewhat agree 66.3% 66.4% 70.0%
Neither agree nor disagree 21.4 26.8 17.8
Somewhat/strongly disagree 12.3 6.8 12.2
We actively seek opportunities from digitization to improve our sustainability performance and discover more sustainable
business models
Strongly/somewhat agree 66.4 71.1 63.8
Neither agree nor disagree 20.2 18.6 23.9
Somewhat/strongly disagree 13.4 10.4 12.3
n=538 n=112 n=359
Digital transformation helps our organization reduce its environmental footprint and/or reliance on raw materials for products
Strongly/somewhat agree 76.8%
Neither agree nor disagree 8.2
Somewhat/strongly disagree 15.0
n=18
Source: The Conference Board, 2018
15. www.conferenceboard.org c-suite challenge 2018 research report 15
Customer Relationships/
Corporate Brand and Reputation
Transforming to Compete in the Experience Economy
What CEOs’ and C-Suite executives’ selected strategies for meeting the Customer Relationships/ Corporate Brand
and Reputation challenge and responses to special questions about the quest for customer-centricity are telling us:
• In an era that requires both high tech and high touch, CEOs place great value on personal engagement with
customers and clients.
• CEOs have a high degree of confidence in their customer experience teams: More than 80 percent of CEOs
globally agree with the statement: “I have the leadership team in place necessary to deliver a consistent,
competitive experience to our customers.”
While creating a customer-centric culture by hearing and understanding the voice of the customer is seen as critical,
there may be a gap in practicing what they preach. Only 36 percent of CEOs globally agree that “My organization
has a digital transformation team that spends significant time directly with our customers.”
Table 13 In an era that requires both high tech and high touch, CEOs place great value both on the basic quality of
products and services delivered and on personal engagement with customers and clients.
CEO
CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS/ CORPORATE BRAND AND
REPUTATION STRATEGIES 2018 Global US Asia Europe
Latin
America C-Suite*
Enhance quality of products/services 1 3 1 2 5 5
Engage personally with key customers/clients 2 1 4 3 6 4
Develop a more outward-looking, customer-centric culture 3 2 3 5 2 1
Create more product/service customization through
digital technologies
4 4 7 1 1 2
Communicate corporate values to customers and key stakeholders 5 9 6 5 9 3
Employ big data analytics to better understand shifts in customer
patterns
6 8 2 9 7 7
Use competitive intelligence to better understand customer/
client needs
7 5 10 4 4 6
Increase speed of products and services to market 8 7 9 7 8 10
Use social media and mobile applications to enhance brand image 9 6 11 8 3 8
Improve alignment and accountability of corporate business
practices/management behavior with corporate values
10 10 5 10 10 9
Provide incentives for frontline employees to improve
customer engagement
11 11 8 11 12 12
Ensure compliance with corporate brand identity and
values among strategic business partners and suppliers
12 12 12 12 11 11
n=534 n=103 n=187 n=69 n=87 n=213
* Excluding CEOs.
Source: The Conference Board, 2018
16. www.conferenceboard.org16 c-suite challenge 2018
Table 14 CEOs express confidence that their customer experience teams are delivering
on the brand promise. Most C-Suite executives believe they have the digital tools
to deliver the right customer experience, though more than a quarter find they are
underresourced technology-wise.
CEO
I have the leadership team
in place necessary to deliver
a consistent, competitive
experience to our customers
Strongly/somewhat agree 80.5%
Neither agree nor disagree 10.4
Somewhat/strongly disagree 9.1
I have identified and hold
accountable a named owner(s) of
the Customer Experience for my
organization
Strongly/somewhat agree 66.0%
Neither agree nor disagree 19.2
Somewhat/strongly disagree 14.9
I have identified metrics of
success for my Customer
Experience organization
Strongly/somewhat agree 65.2%
Neither agree nor disagree 19.4
Somewhat/strongly disagree 15.4
My organization has a digital
transformation team that spends
significant time directly with our
customers
Strongly/somewhat agree 36.9%
Neither agree nor disagree 27.6
Somewhat/strongly disagree 35.5
n=548
C-SUITE
I have the digital strategy and/
or tools in place necessary to
deliver the customer experience
we want
Strongly/somewhat agree 58.2%
Neither agree nor disagree 16.3
Somewhat/strongly disagree 25.5
The technology required to
deliver our desired customer
experience is effectively
prioritized and funded
Strongly/somewhat agree 56.4%
Neither agree nor disagree 17.2
Somewhat/strongly disagree 26.4
I am empowered to make and
implement decisions that affect
Customer Experience for my
organization
Strongly/somewhat agree 70.7%
Neither agree nor disagree 10.3
Somewhat/strongly disagree 19.0
n=69
Source: The Conference Board, 2018
17. www.conferenceboard.org 17c-suite challenge 2018
Regulation and Risk
Improving the Regulatory Environment to Deal with Multifaceted
Effects of Disruption
What CEOs’ and C-Suite executives’ selected strategies for meeting the Regulation and Risk challenge
and responses to special questions about corporate culture are telling us:
• The current volatile and uncertain global regulatory environment is creating a renewed focus on
strengthening internal compliance processes.
• In a reflection of the optimism of an improving global economic forecast for 2018 and receding
concern over global recession, defensive strategies such as management of cash flows, currency
volatility, and raising capital reserves have diminished in importance as risk mitigation strategies
compared to 2017.
• To deal with the disruptive effects of digital technologies, companies see improved agility as a
critical aspect of risk mitigation.
How a company structures its cybersecurity strategy and infrastructure can have a significant impact
on whether and how much the company can take advantage of the opportunities in the New Digital
Economy while managing the associated legal, financial, and reputational risks.
Table 15 The current volatile and uncertain global regulatory environment is creating a renewed focus
on strengthening internal compliance processes. Creating an agile organization remains an important
component of risk mitigation strategies.
CEO
REGULATION AND RISK STRATEGIES 2018 Global US Asia Europe
Latin
America CFO
Strengthen internal regulatory compliance processes 1 3 1 2 1 1
Improve our organizational agility/flexibility 2 2 3 3 2 2
Explicitly integrate long-term risk recognition into strategic planning 3 4 2 1 4 5
Incorporate cyber risks into existing risk management and
governance processes
4 1 6 6 6 3
Update contingency plans and procedures for crises
(e.g., geographical, political, relocation of employees)
5 5 5 4 3 4
Improve employee monitoring and training to lower internal risk for
IP loss
6 7 4 9 9 7
Focus on competitive opportunities created by regulation 7 6 9 5 8 10
Enforce compliance with government regulations on bribery and
corruption in all our locations
8 9 8 8 5 6
Reduce volatility in cash flows 9 8 10 7 10 9
Manage currency risk 10 11 7 10 7 8
Raise capital reserves 11 10 11 11 11 11
n=543 n=104 n=187 n=69 n=87 n=113
Source: The Conference Board, 2018
18. c-suite challenge 2018 research report www.conferenceboard.org18
About the Authors
Charles Mitchell, executive director, knowledge
content and quality at The Conference Board,
is responsible for the development of member-
generated content and ensuring the objectivity,
independence, accuracy, and business relevance of
the organization’s research.
Rebecca L. Ray, PhD serves as the executive vice
president, knowledge organization, for The Conference
Board. In this role, she has oversight of the research
planning and dissemination process for all three
practice areas (corporate leadership, economy and
business environment, and human capital) and is
responsible for the research agenda. She is the
director of The Engagement Institute™
, a research
community of practice she created with Deloitte
Consulting and Mercer Sirota.
Bart van Ark, PhD is executive vice president,
chief economist, and chief strategy officer of The
Conference Board. He leads a team of almost two
dozen economists in New York, Brussels, and Beijing
who produce a range of widely watched economic
indicators and growth forecasts and in-depth
global economic research. A Dutch national, he is
the first non-US chief economist in the history of
The Conference Board.
About the 2018 Survey
Since 1999, The Conference Board CEO Challenge®
survey has asked CEOs, presidents, and chairmen
across the globe to identify the key strategies
they intend to use to meet their critical business
challenges. This year, to provide a more holistic view
of the global business environment, we introduce
C-Suite Challenge™
. For this report, we focused
on 21 key functions and expanded our respondent
pool to include C-Suite executives, including chief
financial officers, chief human resources officers,
chief information officers, and chief marketing
officers. Respondents were asked about six core
issues: Human Capital, Customer Relationships/
Corporate Brand and Reputation, Operational
Excellence, Innovation, Regulation and Risk, and
Sustainability. With the exception of CEOs, not all
functions were asked to respond to each one of the
six core challenges.
In addition, we presented our 561 CEO respondents
and 475 C-Suite respondents representing more than
50 countries globally with a list of 28 “hot-button
issues” that include macroeconomic concerns,
geopolitical uncertainty, internal fiscal and human
capital issues, and social and environmental pressures.
Their responses highlight the unique pressure
points they see within their own organization as
well as their regional economic microclimates. Also
included in this year’s survey are special questions on
leadership attributes for the digital age, the critical
traits of an agile organization, and the state of digital
transformation within their organizations.
The survey was carried out between early September
and early November 2017. For each of the six core
business issues we presented, respondents were asked
to choose five strategies from among approximately
15 to reveal their approaches to meeting these core
challenges. For each key business issue, the strat-
egies were ranked according to the percentage of
respondents who chose that strategy. To provide a
representative view from respondents from around
the world, we weighted the responses in aggregates
(such as global and major regions) by the square root
of the respondent’s country share in global output
(GDP) divided by the respondent’s share in the total
number of responses from his/her country. Write-ins
were also permitted as they informed us about
possible deviations.
While CEO and C-Suite priorities certainly vary on a
company-to-company basis, we believe this report
can serve as a discussion starter and idea prompter
within organizations to ensure that the enterprise
understands the challenges it faces, the strategic
goals it needs to set to meet those challenges, and the
strategies and tactics required to be competitive in
a global marketplace.
19. www.conferenceboard.org c-suite challenge 2018 research report 19
Survey Demographics
CEOs
REGIONS Count Percent
Asia 189 33.7%
Europe 72 12.8
Latin America 87 15.5
United States 108 19.3
Rest of the World 105 18.7
TOTAL 561 100.0%
REVENUES Count Percent
Less than $100 million 372 68.4%
$100 million to under $1 billion 87 16.0
$1 billion to under $5 billion 45 8.3
$5 billion and above 40 7.4
TOTAL 544 100.0%
INDUSTRY Count Percent
Manufacturing 134 24.5%
Finance 79 14.4
Service 335 61.1
TOTAL 548 100.0%
All C-Suite Executives
REGIONS Count Percent
Asia 304 29.2%
Europe 155 14.9
Latin America 216 20.7
United States 220 21.1
Rest of the World 147 14.1
TOTAL 1042 100%
REVENUES Count Percent
Less than $100 million 499 49.2%
$100 million to under $1 billion 210 20.7
$1 billion to under $5 billion 129 12.7
$5 billion and above 176 17.4
TOTAL 1014 100.0%
INDUSTRY Count Percent
Manufacturing 298 29.1%
Finance 152 14.8
Service 574 56.1
TOTAL 1024 100.0%
JOB TITLE Count Percent
Chief Executive Officer 561 54.2%
Chief Financial Officer 114 11.0
Chief Human Resources Officer 100 9.7
Chief Operating/Operations Officer 61 5.9
Other C-Suite Executives* 200 19.3
TOTAL 1036 100.0%
Regional Partners
GLOBAL
Association of Executive Search and
Leadership Consultants (AESC)
ASIA-PACIFIC
Australia
Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI)
China
Fortune China
Hong Kong
Hong Kong Management Association (HKMA)
Malaysia
Asian Institute of Finance (AIF)
Singapore
Nanyang Technical University (NTU)
Thailand
Thailand Management Association (TMA)
EUROPE AND MIDDLE EAST
Germany
Cologne Institute for Economic Research (IW Köln)
Greece
Hellenic Management Association (EEDE)
LATIN AMERICA
Mercer
NORTH AMERICA
Canada
The Conference Board of Canada