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Tag: CEO

  • Half of global CEOs don’t expect to see a return to ”normal” until 2022

    Half of global CEOs don’t expect to see a return to ”normal” until 2022

    The 2021 KPMG CEO Outlook Pulse Survey finds that almost half (45 percent) of global executives do not expect to see a return to a ”normal” course of business until sometime in 2022.

    As opposed, nearly one-third (31 percent) anticipate this will happen later this year.

    The changes prompted by the pandemic have resulted in one-quarter (24 percent) of CEOs saying that their business model has been changed forever by the global pandemic.

    A majority (55 percent) of CEOs are concerned about employees’ access to a COVID-19 vaccine, which is influencing their outlook of when employees will return to the workplace.

    Interesting, 90 percent of CEOs are considering asking employees to report when they have been vaccinated.

    However, one-third (34 percent) of global executives are worried about misinformation on COVID-19 vaccine safety and the potential this may have on employees choosing not to have it administered.

    Government and vaccination rates driving decision-making

    Three-quarters (76 percent) of CEOs see government encouragement for businesses to return to ‘normal’ as the prompt for businesses to ask staff to return to the workplace.

    In addition, 61 percent of global executives said that they will also need to see a successful COVID-19 vaccine rollout in key markets before taking any action toward a return to offices.

    When employees can safely return to workplaces, one-fifth of companies (21 percent) are looking to institute additional precautionary measures.

    Global CEOs are less likely to downsize physical footprint compared to 6 months ago

    The research finds that only 17 percent of global executives are looking to downsize their office space as a result of the pandemic.

    In contrast, 69 percent of CEOs surveyed in August 2020 said they planned to reduce their office space over 3 years.

    Global executives remain apprehensive about a fully remote workforce

    CEOs are considering what the new reality will look like, but post-COVID, only three in 10 (30 percent) of global executives are considering a hybrid model of working for their staff.

    As a result, only one-fifth (21 percent) of businesses are looking to hire talent that works predominantly remotely, which is a significant shift from last year (73 percent in 2020).

  • Four out of five CEOs expect remote working to continue on the long term

    Four out of five CEOs expect remote working to continue on the long term

    Four out of five CEOs expect remote working to become more widespread in their businesses, after finding that their prior concerns about productivity losses în lockdown were unfounded, according to PwC’s CEO Panel Survey, conducted in June and July 2020.

    A prior survey of PwC, CFO Pulse, from April showed that nearly half of the surveyed financial executives expected productivity loss because of a lack of remote work capabilities.

    Two months later, when asked again, just 26% of CFOs anticipated productivity loss in the month ahead.

    Two key themes emerged among our respondents, when asked about their priorities. The first one is the plan to make their companies more digital, by digitising core business operations and processes, and adding digital products and services.

    The second theme is that the CEOs plan to develop a more flexible and involved workforce by increasing the share of remote or contingent workers, and expand employee health, safety and wellness programmes.

    In this context, respondents believe shifts towards automation (76% of CEOs), low-density workplaces (61%), supply chain safety (58%), gig economy (54%) and public safety (50%) will have a lasting impact.

    More pessimism about global economy perspectives

    CEOs are significantly more pessimistic about the direction of the global economy over the next 12 months now than they were at the end of 2019, with just 30% saying economic growth will improve in the year ahead.

    And with good reason: The World Bank forecasts that the global economy will shrink by 5.2% in 2020, representing the deepest recession since the Second World War.

    As a result, CEOs also face uncertainty about their own operations, with only 15% indicating that they are very confident in their organisation’s revenue prospects.

  • Marco Tronchetti Provera nominated as the ”new” Pirelli CEO

    Marco Tronchetti Provera nominated as the ”new” Pirelli CEO

    The Board of Directors of Pirelli nominated Marco Tronchetti Provera as Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) attributing to him the powers for the operational management of Pirelli.

    Marco Tronchetti Provera is Chief Executive Officer of Pirelli since 1992 and Executive Vice Chairman since 20 October 2015.

    The Chairman Ning Gaoning was attributed the legal representation of the Company and other powers foreseen in the current bylaws, notwithstanding the powers and prerogatives of the Board of Directors.

    The Board of Directors is composed of Ning Gaoning (Chairman), Marco Tronchetti Provera (Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer), Yang Xingqiang, Bai Xinping, Wei Yintao (independent), Domenico De Sole (independent), Giovanni Tronchetti Provera, Zhang Haitao, Fan Xiaohua (independent), Marisa Pappalardo (independent), Tao Haisu (independent), Carlo Secchi (independent), Giovanni Lo Storto (independent), Paola Boromei (independent) e Roberto Diacetti (independent).

    The Board of Directors confirmed Francesco Tanzi, the group’s Chief Financial Officer, as the manager responsible for the preparation of the company’s accounting documents and nominated the supervisory body, which expired together with the Board that had nominated it, confirming, in continuity with the previous mandate, Carlo Secchi (Chairman), Antonella Carù, Maurizio Bonzi and Alberto Bastanzio.

  • CEO pessimism over global growth in 2020 reaches record high

    CEO pessimism over global growth in 2020 reaches record high

    CEOs are showing record levels of pessimism over the 2020 global economy growth, according to PwC’s 23rd CEO Global Survey launched at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

    The percentage of those predicting a slowdown in the global economy is the highest since we started asking this question in 2012. Thus, 53% are predicting a decline in the rate of economic growth in 2020, up from 29% in 2019 and just 5% in 2018. At the same time, the number of CEOs projecting a rise in the rate of economic growth dropped from 42% in 2019 to only 22% in 2020. 

    “Given the lingering uncertainty over trade tensions, geopolitical issues and the lack of agreement on how to deal with climate change, the drop in confidence in economic growth is not surprising – even if the scale of the change in mood is,” said Bob Moritz, Chairman, of the PwC Network.

    CEO pessimism over global economic growth is particularly significant in North America, Western Europe and the Middle East, with 63%, 59% and 57% of CEOs from those regions predicting lower global growth in the year ahead. In contrast, the most optimistic are Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) CEOs, 43% of them predicting a decrease in the growth rate.

    CEOs are also not so positive about their own companies’ prospects for the year ahead, with only 27% of CEOs saying they are “very confident” in their own organisation’s growth over the next 12 months – the lowest level we have seen since 2009 and down from 35% last year. 

    While confidence levels are generally down across the world, there is a wide variation from country to country, with China and India showing the highest levels of confidence among major economies at 45% and 40% respectively, the US at 36%, Canada at 27%, the UK at 26%, Germany at 20%, France 18%, and Japan having the least optimistic CEOs with only 11% of  CEOs very confident of growing revenues in 2020.

    Analysing CEO forecasts since 2008, the correlation between CEO confidence in their 12-month revenue growth and the actual growth achieved by the global economy has been very close (see exhibit4 in notes). If the analysis continues to hold, global growth could slow to 2.4% in 2020 below many estimates including the 3.4% October growth prediction from the IMF.

    Top concerns in 2020: Excessive regulation, trade conflicts and uncertain economic growth

    In 2019 when asked about the top threats to their organisations’ growth prospects, uncertain economic growth ranked outside the top ten concerns for CEOs at number twelve. This year it has leapt to third place, just behind trade conflicts – another risk that has risen up the CEOs agenda – and the perennial over-regulation, which has again topped the table as the number one threat for CEOs. 

    Policing cyberspace

    Globally over two-thirds of CEOs believe that governments will introduce new legislation to regulate the content on both the internet and social media and to break up dominant tech companies. A majority of CEOs (51%) also predict that governments will increasingly compel the private sector to financially compensate individuals for the personal data that they collect. 

    The upskilling challenge

    While the shortage of key skills remains a top threat to growth for CEOs and they agree that retraining/upskilling is the best way to close the skills gap, they are not making much headway in tackling the problem with only 18% of CEOs saying they have made “significant progress” in establishing an upskilling programme.

    Climate change – challenge or chance?

    Although climate change does not appear in the top ten threats to CEOs’ growth prospects, CEOs are expressing a growing appreciation of the upside of taking action to reduce their carbon footprint. Compared to a decade ago, when we last asked this question, CEOs are now twice as likely to “strongly agree” that investing in climate change initiatives will boost reputational advantage (30% in 2020 compared with 16% in 2010) and 25% of CEOs today compared with 13% in 2010 see climate change initiatives leading to new product and service opportunities for their organisation. 

    PwC’s 23rd Global CEO Survey was conducted among almost 1,600 CEOs from 83 countries across the world.