CEOs spell out major threats to businesses

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of companies have considered inflation, macroeconomic volatility and geopolitical conflicts as some of the most significant threats impacting their businesses in the country.

This has been revealed in the PwC’s 27th Annual Global CEO Survey – Pakistan launched on Sunday.

To capture the specific perspectives and insights of Pakistan’s CEOs on critical issues, for the first time, CEOs of Pakistani companies were included in this year’s PwC’s Annual Global CEO Survey.

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The CEOs believed that their companies will be highly or extremely exposed to the key threats of inflation (55%), macroeconomic volatility (47%) and geopolitical conflict (27%) in the next twelve months.

The survey results disclosed that around 42 percent of the CEOs of Pakistani companies believed that their companies will not be economically viable a decade from now, if it continues the existing business model.

Further, 63% of CEOs anticipated an increase in competitive intensity within their industry, driven by factors such as new entrants, products or pricing approaches in the next three years.

The survey is structured around relevant key business dimensions including growth, threats, reinvention, generative AI, and climate, and included insights from 62 Pakistani CEOs, representing a diverse range of companies, industries, and sectors for the very first time.

The survey revealed that the CEOs are very optimistic about the revenue growth of their companies in the short to medium term, being able to increase headcount and prices of products and services.

The survey results revealed that 95 percent of CEOs exhibit confidence in the revenue growth of their companies over the next twelve months. Interestingly, when the timeframe extends to three years, there is a slight decline in the overall confidence levels to 92 percent.

Key insights from the survey included that the CEOs are optimistic about the revenue growth of their companies in the short to medium term with 95% expecting revenues of their companies to grow.

The impact of government regulations is considered by 77% of the CEOs as the key factor driving the way their companies created, delivered, and captured value during the last five years.

According to the survey, 68% of CEOs believe generative AI will profoundly transform the way their companies create, deliver and capture value in the next three years and 93% of CEOs consider improving energy efficiency as the most significant climate action.

The results of the survey reaffirmed the need of enabling government regulatory environment for the businesses as without it, sustained growth may not be achievable despite businesses adopting new technologies for enhanced capabilities, developing new products and services, and implementing novel pricing models.

Businesses currently seem to be in their early phase of implementation regarding climate related actions. Most significant climate related initiative on the agenda of the CEOs (93% responding that their actions relating to this have either been completed/ in progress or are being planned) relates to achieving energy efficiency.

Innovation of new climate-friendly products, services and selling technologies that support customers’ climate-resilience efforts follow energy efficiency initiatives. Lack of climate related technologies was identified as the most significant factor by the CEOs in their efforts to decarbonise their business, survey results added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024