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Arriving now: The CEO’s 2024 agenda
What’s important to CEOs in 2024
Five topics shaping the chief executive agenda
Inflation, war, civil unrest, devastating storms, virtual worlds, board expertise, artificial intelligence – has the CEO agenda ever been more far-flung and complex to manage than it is today? Decades-long trends that made for a predictable world are weakening and new ones are emerging. These new trends could be destabilizing – undermining the ideas and assumptions on which your business model rests. However, they can also be an opportunity that opens new ways to grow. Sitting still is not an option, and answering foundational questions can help illuminate your path forward: Are we differentiated and fit for growth? Is our technology holding us back? Do we have the right portfolio of businesses?
Your legacy rests on your ability to lead the reinvention of your organization to capitalize on change and deliver returns to stakeholders. To be effective change agents, CEOs rely on an important, intangible asset: trust. Earning trust for yourself and your company helps instill confidence that bold, fundamental change – whether reorganization plans, business model changes, climate reporting or generative AI – will set a strong foundation for growth. Accomplishing everything you envision calls for a new equation for how business gets done.
M&A: Transform or be left behind
Thinking exponentially about a company’s long-term survival is a crucial part of a CEO’s legacy. As the reality of higher-for-longer interest rates sets in, strategic plans are changing as a new set of deal opportunities emerges. The recent increase in M&A activity suggests that visionary leaders - who have the benefit of rebounding profits and rising confidence – are pursuing deals.
Apply productivity multipliers
Your company can never be too productive or too profitable. Fine-tuning the business to deliver stronger growth is harder amid today’s high interest rates, “sticky” inflation and geopolitical fractures. Cutting costs may work in the short-term, but possibly at the cost of impairing your company’s potential. A better path to consider is flipping the cost-cutting script – guide the CFO and the executive team to judge the importance of an expense by its value to the business strategy, not by its cost. And level set expectations that technology projects deliver pre-specified financial outcomes. Those are trusted, productivity-boosting approaches to help build shareholder value in today’s unsettled times.
Wanted: Exponential thinking
Having a well-oiled, profit-making machine is good for today, but a poor strategic plan for delivering long-term value. Your choice is stark: either change the company to enable survival or risk having change forced upon it. Exponential strategic thinking grounded in data-driven analysis can help you stay ahead of business model disruption stemming from innovation, regulations or new competitors. Working with the board to alter the business through divestitures, mergers, spin outs or enterprise-wide transformation may seem radical but the leaders who regularly scrutinize their portfolio of businesses may have a better chance of coming out on top.
45%
of global CEOs think their organization will no longer be economically viable in 10 years' time, if it continues on its current course, up from 39% in 2023
Retooling technology’s ROI
Increasing productivity? Going big on the future? Technology is at the core of your business model reinvention. But for all of the leaps forward in computing, many companies struggle to realize ROI from technology. The ones who succeed at unlocking digital value know that it’s how they employ technology that makes the difference. They are outcomes obsessed and view breakthroughs, such as generative AI, as a tool that can deliver specific financial targets. Tech risks are ever-present, of course. That’s why CEOs work with CIOs to incorporate trust by design – building in risk management, audit and controls and security from the beginning.
88%
of CEOs and other business executives struggle to capture value from their technology investments
Source: PwC Pulse Survey, August 2023
Balancing stakeholder demands
You and the board have very different responsibilities, but you have the same goal: securing the future of the company. To accomplish that, the composition of the board is of paramount importance and executives are demanding changes to address AI and climate. And there are competing relationships that need your attention too as these stakeholders can wield power over your vision. Developing deep and trusted relationships with employees, regulators, NGOs, community groups and others helps align them to, and potentially even accelerate, your strategy. The complex calculus that goes into properly balancing those relationships is a must-have skill for current and up-and-coming CEOs.
62%
of CEOs say one or more directors on their boards should be replaced compared to 39% in 2022
Source: PwC and The Conference Board, Board effectiveness: A survey of the C-suite, April 2024
Climate of opportunity
The C-suite’s focus on ESG regulatory compliance is understandable amid the dizzying pace of change at home and abroad. However, you can’t lose sight of potential competitive advantages that arise during tumultuous change. Being at the forefront of emerging issues can open new growth avenues and burnish your company’s reputation for societal leadership. The first step is to make sure that the data underpinning your pledges and commitments is trustworthy and demonstrates that you’re working diligently to meet regulators’ expectations for a cleaner world and stakeholders’ demand for a more resilient business.
50%
of CEOs and other business executives say climate change is a moderate or serious business risk
Source: PwC Pulse Survey, August 2023
