PwC Survey: CEOs Focused on Cutting Costs, Managing Risk

PricewaterhouseCoopers recently published its 13th Annual Global CEO Survey, and the results show that business leaders are emerging from the recession with a healthy respect for risk, volatility and flexibility. Not surprisingly, many of the 1,198 CEOs surveyed cited business concerns that relate to supply chain management. For instance, even though business leaders in the survey cited a protracted global recession as their biggest worry, they also voiced significant unease regarding government overregulation. In fact, more CEOs are extremely concerned' about over-regulation than any other threat to growth, and worries over protectionist tendencies are up ten percentage points over last year's survey. PwC also found that: Companies are continuing to cut costs. Businesses in the US, Europe and the UK have led in cost-cutting over the past 12 months, and they remain focused on cost cuts in the short term. Now, the momentum is shifting to companies based in Asia: 93 percent of CEOs in China and India and 90 percent in Korea plan cost efficiencies over the next three years, compared with the global average of 78 percent. Many CEOs are optimistic about the year ahead. 31 percent of CEOs said they were very confident' in achieving revenue growth over the coming 12 months, a significant increase from last year. 83 percent of those polled expect internally generated cash flow to finance growththat's up seven percentage points compared to last year. Risk is becoming a fundamental part of the strategic planning process. Interestingly, the survey results indicated that more CEOs intend to change their risk management process than any other element of their strategy, organization or business model. In addition, more boards are increasing their engagement with assessing strategic risk than with any other item on the boardroom agenda. For more details, or to download a copy of the report, click here.