Trends Identified
Regulations: Public & Private
Nearly two-thirds of CEOs – rising to more than three-quarters in some parts of Europe – factor the regulatory framework into their business decisions to ‘a great extent’. Taxation and the labour laws are the two areas of regulation CEOs would most like to see improved. However, there are significant national variations in opinion. More than half of all CEOs support global harmonisation of critical elements of the regulatory regime. Very few CEOs believe that their governments are reducing the regulatory burden or creating a business-friendly environment. A study with the World Bank concludes that there is a win-win on both sides, if government simplifies tax systems, eases the compliance cost on businesses and reduces tax rates.
2008
11th Annual global CEO Survey
PWC
The search for global solutions
Léo Apotheker, Co-CEO of the global business software maker SAP AG, which is based in Germany, says: ‘One of the characteristics of the current environment is that we’re actually dealing with more than one crisis. We have an economic downturn, but we also have an environmental crisis of significant proportions. Global warming has made its effects felt, and is no longer something to be disputed. We also have an energy crisis. And we have a scarcity of resources problem. There are nearly seven billion human beings on the planet and we need to feed them, and so we have a serious issue to address.´
2009
12th Annual global CEO Survey
PWC
An historic moment: One world united in crisis
Concerns about the prospect of a recession in the US, the UK and some other developed economies mounted, as 2008 marched on. By the time autumn arrived in the northern hemisphere, a deep economic winter seemed imminent. The trigger point came in mid-September, when US investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy, felled by nearly US$60 billion in bad debts, and another US investment bank, Merrill Lynch, announced it would be acquired by Bank of America to avoid a similar fate. That evening, the US Federal Reserve asked two other Wall Street investment banks to help inject US$75 billion into insurer American International Group.2 All the major advanced economies were either in, or about to enter, a serious recession. Indeed, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) expressed fears that 2009 might be the worst year for the industrialised economies since World War II.3
2009
12th Annual global CEO Survey
PWC
Walking a tightrope
How does a business meet the current, acute demands of survival and at the same time ensure its business model is both durable over the long term and positioned to take best advantage of a return to growth? Stephen Green, Group Chairman of the UK-based international banking and financial services organisation HSBC Holdings plc, explains: ‘One of the obvious risks is that current emergencies drive out the longer-term perspective…You cannot rebalance economies overnight. No institution, whether it’s a bank, or a government, or the World Bank or the IMF, has the power to do this. It simply will take time, and it’s a difficult tightrope to walk.’ Walking the tightrope requires CEOs to balance extreme, short-term threats to survival, on the one hand, and on the other, large-scale, global issues that impact long-term success. Many CEOs believe this requires a mindset that is different from the past.
2009
12th Annual global CEO Survey
PWC
Rethink: From crisis to cautious optimism
Confident in companies, tentative on recoveries CEOs are emerging from deeper cost-cutting than they expected last year. In last year’s survey, conducted as the financial crisis unfolded late in 2008, 26% of CEOs told us they expected headcount reductions over the next 12 months. A year later, close to half of respondents reported they cut jobs and at least 80% of CEOs in each region initiated cost reductions. In North America and Western Europe, close to a quarter of companies divested a business or exited a significant market. It is clear that few considered simply riding out the recession a viable response. ‘The crisis took us to a new place. It was a reset for our business’, said Angela F. Braly, President and CEO of US health insurer WellPoint Inc. They are now guardedly confident about generating revenue growth in the near term and they are decidedly more confident over a three-year time horizon. Indeed, over that time period, CEOs are about as confident of their revenue prospects as they have ever been in our survey. Of course, this may partly be a reflection of the depths to which demand had sunk.
2010
13th Annual global CEO Survey
PWC
Reshape: The post-crisis environment
Worst fears fail to materialise on regulations… yetRegulation is a perennial concern for CEOs. This year,how business leaders view regulatory issues has to be understood through the lens of ‘what might have been’at the start of 2009, when the uncertainty which hung over the financial system and by extension, the global economy,was so great. At that time, drastic measures to contain the crisis and preserve national economies were a realistic prospect. Massive bailouts ensued and with them,expectations of radical regulation to prevent another crisis.The alarmist scenarios of trade barriers and regulatory rewrites largely failed to materialise. Yet there remains asense that more regulatory change is inevitable. CEOs see little encouraging news on compliance costs. Regulatory burdens on corporations were not addressed during the downturn. In fact, in this year’s survey, more CEOs citeda lack of progress on cutting red tape than a year ago,67% to 57%. Only 2% of CEOs based in the US said the government has reduced regulations (see figure 2.1).Some governments are listening, at least when it comes to taxes. Our annual measure of the comparative ease of paying taxes in 183 countries found that 45 economies had reduced the tax burden on SMEs, or made it easier for them to pay taxes, in the year through 1 June 2009.4Yet, few CEOs believe that trend will continue.
2010
13th Annual global CEO Survey
PWC
Result: Adapting to compete
Short-term cost focus Despite widespread restructurings last year, many businesses remain committed to further cost-cutting. In an indication of the cost pressure they continue to face, 69% of CEOs we surveyed plan cost-reduction initiatives in the next 12 months, compared with the 88% who made cuts over the past year (see figure 3.1). Business leaders are also bracing for continued volatility. ‘Under the current situation, demand changes every day, and enterprises need to adapt rapidly. In fact, wide fluctuations in market conditions have become very normal and we must be ready to respond to a whole range of possible conditions: low market prices, strong demand, or no demand’, Huang Tianwen, President of China-based Sinosteel Corporation, told us.
2010
13th Annual global CEO Survey
PWC
Renewables will power mobile networks
The skills gap is actually an information gap. The problem is not that workers are unskilled; it’s that workers don’t know what skills employers need. Technology is already disrupting existing jobs, and creating new jobs that never existed before. In fact, the top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 did not even exist in 2004. Change is happening so rapidly that 65 percent of today’s grade school kids in the U.S. will end up at jobs that haven’t even been invented yet.
2014
14 tech predictions for our world in 2020
World Economic Forum (WEF)
Learning on the job will never stop
How will our education institutions keep up? Today, there is a disconnect between education providers and employers. In the future, however, technology will enable education and training to respond dynamically to real-time labor market changes. With widespread access to training and courses online and available on-demand, workers can be informed of skill updates while they work, and will regularly top up their education with the skills they need to remain relevant in the workforce.
2014
14 tech predictions for our world in 2020
World Economic Forum (WEF)
The ‘humanized’ internet
The evolution of modern connectivity is often summarized as: the internet – the world wide web – mobile devices – big data/the cloud – the internet of things. For the next stage, it seems inevitable that even more personalization will be an important component. What we refer to as the internet of things will be central. However, more than simply connecting humans with devices, the next stage in connectivity will include “humanized” interfaces that constantly evolve to understand the user’s patterns and needs and, in a sense, self-optimize. This would include the functions and features on our devices, as well as the selection/curation of information we receive. It may not be the kind of artificial intelligence found in science fiction, but I expect this injection of personalization will bring monumental changes as our level of connectivity continues to grow.
2014
14 tech predictions for our world in 2020
World Economic Forum (WEF)