19th Annual Global CEO Survey / January 2016
Growing in complicated times p06 / Addressing greater expectations p12/ Transforming:
technology, innovation and talent p18 / Measuring and communicating success p26/
Navigating complexity to exceed expectations p32
www.pwc.com/ceosurvey
Redefining business
success in a
changing world
CEO Survey
1,409 CEOs interviewed
in 83 countries
66% of CEOs see more
threats today
76% of CEOs define
business success by more
than financial profit
2
19th Annual Global CEO Survey
Introduction from
Dennis Nally
As they look forward to the year ahead
CEOs are less confident about prospects
for the global economy than they were
in 2015. The same is true overall when
they consider their own company’s
prospects for growth.
Many CEOs do still see opportunities
but they are looking to play things safe.
The United States and China are far
and away the most important markets
that CEOs identify as offering the best
prospects for growth, with Germany and
the United Kingdom some way behind.
That said, CEOs also see potential in
India’s bullish business attitude and
in Brazil despite its current political
and economic struggles. Potential
new opportunities in Mexico and
the UAE have also made CEOs pay
attention in the last year.
CEOs continue to highlight over-
regulation as their biggest concern.
But even as issues like an increased
tax burden and governments’ response
to fiscal deficits and debt burdens
loom large, geopolitical uncertainty
(exacerbated by regional conflicts
and increased terrorism attacks)
is a top concern for nearly three-
quarters of CEOs.
More disorienting still for CEOs is their
growing feeling that our globalised
economic and social fabric is fraying as
divergent political, business, societal
and cultural movements take hold.
This is driven by digital technologies
that have enabled people all over the
world to be more connected, better
informed, and as a result, increasingly
empowered and emboldened.
It’s not lost on CEOs that a great many
of these technologically empowered
citizens are also their customers or
potential customers. While they are
better connected than ever before
they must also navigate a world that
is being dramatically shaped by
other megatrends such as increasing
urbanisation, climate change and rapid
demographic and social shifts. Faced
with these changes, CEOs tell us that
customers will increasingly judge
companies based on how they help
greater society and how they live up
to their own values. Notably, nearly a
quarter of CEOs said their company has
changed its sense of purpose in the last
three years to take into account the
broader impact it has on society.
To successfully address the expectations
of a super-connected and technologically
smart society, companies are looking to
technology (of course) for answers.
Internet-enabled technologies continue
to help companies innovate by creating
more relevant products and user
experiences for customers, while ‘digital
native’ talent is now deemed essential
for future business growth. Yet for all
the technological breakthroughs in
areas like customer insight and
marketing, companies still struggle
to create a business proposition that
both drives growth and creates value
for greater society.
How to lead in complicated times? That’s the question all CEOs are
seeking to answer at a time of prolonged and continuing uncertainty.
3
PwC
Dennis M. Nally
Chairman, PricewaterhouseCoopers
International Limited
This could be because, in a digitally
driven world where theoretically every
part of business can be measured, CEOs
haven’t yet mastered how to measure
the long-term success that comes from
being a trusted company and good
corporate citizen. Over time, technology,
once again, will no doubt help CEOs
effectively measure how better
products and services, combined with a
transparent relationship with customers,
employees and greater society can
future-proof their companies in this
uncertain world. But they have to know
what success looks like in the first place.
I’d like to thank the more than 1,400
company leaders from 83 countries
who have taken the time to share their
insights with us. Their active and
candid participation is the single
greatest factor in the success of PwC’s
Annual Global CEO Survey, now in its
19th year. We greatly appreciate our
respondents’ willingness to free up
their valuable time to make this survey
as comprehensive and accurate as
possible. We’re especially grateful
to the 33 CEOs who sat down with
us to hold deeper and more detailed
conversations. You’ll see their
comments throughout this report.
4
19th Annual Global CEO Survey
Growing in complicated
times
06
09
Moving beyond globalisation
11
Steering a true course in an uncertain world
Measuring and
communicating success
26
26
A new mindset for measurement
28
Can everything be confidently measured?
30
Communicating impact
Contents
Transforming: technology,
innovation and talent
18
18
Walking the talk
20
Putting technology to work
21
The innovation edge
22
The people edge
24 Why government and business need to
work together
Addressing greater
expectations
12
13
So what do your stakeholders want?
14
Is this the era of the good consumer?
14
A central concern – the quest for trust
15
What do you stand for?
5
PwC
Navigating complexity
to exceed expectations
32
32
Linking strategy to execution
34
Looking for more data?
36
Meet the CEOs we talked to
38
Research methodology and contacts
39
Acknowledgement and thanks
40
Notes and sources
6
19th Annual Global CEO Survey
Growing in
complicated times
74%
of CEOs are concerned
about geopolitical
uncertainty
Today’s CEOs face a business environment
that’s becoming increasingly complicated
to read and adapt to.
Seven years on from the global financial crisis,
the business landscape still hasn’t really returned
to what it was. Will it ever? Last year regulation,
skills, national debt, geopolitical uncertainty and
taxes topped CEOs’ list of concerns about threats
to business growth. None of these have gone
away this year. In fact, the level of worry is higher
today than at any point in the past five years.
Concern about over-regulation in particular
is still highest, cited by 79% of CEOs – making
it the fourth year in a row that it’s risen (see
Figure 1).
Geopolitical uncertainty, meanwhile, has
become the second biggest concern, cited by 74%
of business leaders. This comes at a time when
terror attacks are increasing and touching every
part of the world, many linked to the heightened
conflict in Iraq and Syria. Global conflicts are
also connected to anxieties about social
instability and readiness to respond to crises,
named by 65% and 61% of CEOs, respectively.
Cyber security is also a worry for 61% of CEOs,
representing as it does threats to both national
and commercial interests.
Are we in an environment
where change will take
place at tremendous
speed, whether it’s
economic leadership,
challenges of emerging
countries or developed
countries, political unrest,
challenges with extremist
views around the world,
new technology, or new
business models? That
is the new normal.
Companies and countries
that will lead this new
normal have to deal with
an environment where
there’s constant change,
and be able to adjust to
those at a faster and
faster pace.
John Chambers
Executive Chairman of the
Board, Cisco Systems, Inc., US
... low oil prices have
ramifications in terms of
social dynamics because
it will put pressure on
the availability of funds
in the Middle East,
especially as far as the
oil-producing countries
are concerned ... [which]
have very large young
populations ... there are
going to be enormous
budgetary pressures on
the various countries.
Dr. Ahmed Heikal
Chairman and Founder, Qalaa
Holdings, Egypt
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PwC
Over-regulation
Geopolitical uncertainty
79%
74%
Exchange rate volatility
73%
Geopolitical uncertainty
Increasing tax burden
Social instability
Cyber threats
Shift in consumer
spending and behaviours
Exchange rate volatility
Lack of trust in business
Climate change and
environmental damage
72%
71%
69%
61%
65%
60%
55%
50%
Top-four risers since 2013
79%
74%
73%
Over-regulation
Availability of key skills
Government response to
fiscal deficit and debt burden
Key threats
Top-three threats
Base: All respondents (2016=1,409; 2015=1,322; 2014=1,344; 2013=1,330; 2012=1,258)
Note: Respondents who answered somewhat or extremely concerned
Bribery and
corruption
Lack of trust
in business
Social instability
New in 2015
Consumer spending
and behaviours
2013
2014
2015
2013
2014
2015
2013
2014
2015
2016
2016
2016
2013
2014
2015
2016
41
52
51
55
37
49
53
55
49
52
60
60
60
65
Figure 1 CEOs are getting more concerned about a wide range of risks
Q: How concerned are you about the following potential economic, policy, social and
business threats to your organisation’s growth prospects?
There are, moreover, other uncertainties CEOs
must contend with. Where there’s reasonable
economic growth it’s often being aided by
extraordinary monetary policies, even though
the United States’ Federal Reserve bucked this
trend recently by raising US interest rates for
the first time in nine years. This move, together
with China’s surprise devaluation of the yuan in
August 2015, helps explain why exchange rate
volatility, cited by 73% of CEOs, is third among
their top concerns.
Indeed, CEOs are keeping a very close eye on
China given the continued importance they
place on its economy for their own growth
prospects. Its economic rebalancing, the
fragility of its debt-laden local governments
and its faltering manufacturing sector continue
to spook investors and rattle a number of
industries – not least the commodities sector
that rode the wave of China’s rapid growth
and now is bearing the brunt of the slowdown.
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19th Annual Global CEO Survey
These factors are having different effects in
different places, but together they’re increasing
the level of uncertainty about the global
economy, and CEOs are less optimistic about
prospects this year. The optimists – those who
think global growth will improve over the next
12 months – have dropped to 27% from 37%
last year (see Figure 2). Those who think it
will worsen have increased from 17% to 23%.
As we might expect, CEOs’ confidence about
their own company’s prospects for revenue
growth in the coming year has also fallen,
though not to the same extent as confidence
about the world economy. Thirty-five percent
of CEOs are ‘very confident’ about short-term
business growth compared to 39% last year
(see Figure 2).
It’s become more difficult to pin down where
growth will come from, but CEOs are still
banking on familiar faces. The United States
and China, and to a lesser extent Germany and
the UK, remain the countries that most CEOs
cite among their top overseas growth markets
(see Figure 3).
Growing in complicated times
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2004
2005
2016
2015
2012
2013
CEOs very confident in business growth prospects
CEOs confident global economic growth will improve
2014








 






 

Figure 2 CEOs are less confident about global economic and business growth prospects in
these uncertain times
Q: How confident are you about your company’s prospects for revenue growth over the next 12 months?
Do you believe global economic growth will improve, stay the same or decline over the next 12 months?
Figure 3 CEOs continue to see investment
opportunities across the BRICs
Q: Which three countries, excluding the one in which you
are based, do you consider most important for your
overall growth prospects over the next 12 months?
Base: All respondents (2016=1,409; 2015=1,322; 2014=1,344; 2013=1,330; 2012=1,258; 2011=1,201; 2010=1,198; 2009=1,124; 2008=1,150;
2007=1,084; 2006 (not asked); 2005=1,324; 2004=1,386)
Note: In previous years, respondents were asked ‘Do you believe the global economy will improve, stay the same or decline over the next 12 months?’
UK
India
Brazil
Japan
Russia
Mexico
UAE
11%
9%
8%
5%
5%
5%
5%
39%
34%
19%
USA
China
Germany
... for us in India, it looks
like a situation where we
will be one of the top few
economies in terms of
growth rates.
Chitra Ramkrishna
Managing Director and CEO,
National Stock Exchange of
India Limited (NSE), India
I definitely expect
moderate growth in the
United States. That’s the
most important and
resilient market for me to
see growth, and the most
important market for us.
Takeshi Niinami
President and CEO,
Suntory, Japan
35%
of CEOs are very
confident about short-
term business growth
9
PwC
After two years, Mexico is back in the list of
top-ten countries and is also CEOs’ highest-
ranked non-BRICs emerging market. The UAE
is also in the top ten and is currently the bright
spot in the Middle East given its relatively lower
dependence on oil revenues.
Moving beyond globalisation
This complicated world picture isn’t just being
shaped by economic and geopolitical trends. We
believe there is a more fundamental shift taking
place, namely from a globalising world to one with
many dimensions of power, growth and threats –
a transition that we call multi-polar. The majority
of CEOs already anticipate this shift: 59% expect
multiple economic models, 75% expect increasing
regionalisation in trade, over 81% see increasingly
divergent systems of laws and liberties, and 83%
predict differing fundamental belief systems
underpinning societies (see Figure 4). No wonder
there is so much concern about growth and where
it will come from.
... the TPP is really the
largest trading agreement
we have had since the
WTO. This would bring
40% of the global GDP
together in one economic
block. I’m very excited.
2015 is going to be
fantastic for Vietnam, not
just because of the TPP
– where I believe Vietnam
will come out as the top
beneficial member of the
TPP’s 12 nations – but
because Vietnam is in
the middle of the AEC,
the ASEAN Economic
Community, which will
be fully integrated by
the end of 2015.
Don Lam
Chief Executive Officer
and Founding Partner,
VinaCapital, Vietnam
Figure 4 CEOs must navigate an increasingly complicated and multi-polar world
Q: For each alternative, please select the one that you believe the world is moving more towards
Political unions
Economic unions
and unified
economic models
Single global
marketplace
Single global rule
of law and liberties
Common global
beliefs and value
systems
Free and open
access to the
internet
A global world
bank
Nationalism and
devolved nations
Multiple economic
models
Regional trading
blocs
Multiple rules of
law and liberties
Multiple beliefs
and value systems
Fragmented access
to the internet
Regional
investment banks
39%
35%
22%
15%
14%
72%
15%
53%
59%
75%
81%
83%
25%
79%
CEOs also continue to see investment
opportunities across the BRICs, despite the
complicated picture they present. India, which
has continued to do well under Prime Minister
Narendra Modi’s pro-business government, is
now among CEOs’ five most promising overseas
markets. Brazil, meanwhile, has slipped only
a notch despite its political and economic
problems. Even Russia has held fast despite
geopolitical tensions and its heavy dependence
on oil and gas. While a few years ago CEOs
might have been tempted to consider the BRICs
as one bloc (so to speak), today they seem to be
sizing up opportunities on a case-by-case basis.
Some are employing a ‘wait and see’ approach
to these markets, while others are forging
ahead bolstered by their confidence in these
countries’ longer term fundamental strengths
– not least a large and growing middle class.
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19th Annual Global CEO Survey
The one area where CEOs, in contrast, see
greater convergence is the internet – but even
this plays a core role in highlighting divergent
beliefs even as it brings the world closer together.
This greater devolution of power brings both
threats and opportunities. Different points of
view, exacerbated by economic insecurities,
are certainly leading to more conflict. But
regional trading blocs, for example, can lead
to better quality trade agreements and policies.
There’s evidence that most business leaders,
for example, are optimistic about deeper
economic integration as a result of the Asia-
Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC).1
This isn’t to say that globalisation is dead.
The climate change accord reached at the
United Nations Climate Change Conference
in Paris in December 2015 is a good example
of inter-governmental cooperation.
Given the plethora of uncertainties CEOs are
facing, it’s little wonder that they’re divided
about whether there are more threats or
opportunities today. Two thirds of CEOs (66%)
believe that their business faces more threats
today than three years ago, while almost as many
(60%) see more opportunities (see Figure 5).
32%
see only
more threats
26%
see only more
opportunities
34%
see both more
opportunities
and more threats
60%
see more
opportunities
66%
see more
threats
2015
31%
30%
29%
2016
Figure 5 CEOs see more threats to their
business today than three years ago
Q: To what extent do you agree/disagree that there are
more growth opportunities/threats for your company
than there were three years ago?
For a number of years we
saw a consolidation in
the regulatory
environment that we
operate in, but over the
past five plus years there
has been a divergence.
Countries like China,
South Korea, India and
Brazil have all created
their own regulatory
regimes which – in theory
– are similar to those of
other countries, but have
enough differences to
create a divergence.
Michael Daniell
Managing Director and CEO,
Fisher & Paykel Healthcare
Corporation Ltd., New Zealand
Base: All respondents (2016=1,409; 2015=1,322)
Growing in complicated times
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PwC
We have a lot of treaties,
a lot of rules, a lot of
conventions – we need
to make sure they can
handle the problems of
today. We also need to be
sure we don’t replace them
with something worse.
Michael Møller
Director-General, United
Nations Office at Geneva
(UNOG), Switzerland
?
Have you adjusted your operational model to accommodate
future potential increases to your cost of capital as interest
rates rise and currency markets become more volatile?
Are you tracking the right risks around new political dynamics
such as geopolitical uncertainty and cybersecurity as they
replace concerns related to coping with the financial crisis?
What’s your organisation doing to prepare itself to respond
to and recover from crisis?
Do you have a strategy in place for a more divergent world
where authority and influence are more widely distributed?
How are you preparing your organisation to face non-
traditional competitors now and in the future?
Tough questions to ask about
growing in complicated times
Steering a true course in an
uncertain world
CEOs understand that despite the tremendous
challenges they face in managing their business
for today, they also need to look ahead and
build a business that’s ready for the more
complex global marketplace of the future.
To equip themselves for this challenge, CEOs
are focusing on three core capabilities that
we will examine in more detail.
The first capability is based around
addressing greater expectations. CEOs
acknowledge that their customers as well as
other stakeholders increasingly want them
to do more to tackle important problems. The
response for many has been to focus even more
strongly on customer needs as well as drawing
on their companies’ own sense of purpose – what
they stand for – to define a more comprehensive
view of how their businesses operate within
society. Some CEOs are taking concrete steps
to align this broader mission to their company’s
core goal of profitability.
The second harnesses technology,
innovation and talent to execute the
strategies that meet these greater
expectations. CEOs are using technology to get
closer to consumers but are being challenged to
align all parts of their operating model behind
customer strategies. Some companies are
bridging what we call an ‘execution gap’ by
shaping their entire value proposition, strategy,
operations and capabilities tightly around a
strong commitment to what they stand for.
They’re also looking to build better innovation
and people capabilities to address changing
customer expectations.
The final capability CEOs are looking to
develop are methods of measuring and
communicating success. CEOs are seeking
to better measure the impact and value of
innovation and key risks for stakeholders.
Companies are addressing these challenges
through a greater focus on data and technology
to gain better insight into business processes
and to measure a broader range of variables.
They’re also looking to better communicate
a range of ‘softer’ issues in a reliable and
consistent way across multiple channels.
You’ve got to run a
company for profit, you’ve
got to run it for revenue
growth, but you also have
to run it to be around ten
years from now doing the
right things. That’s one
of the biggest issues most
CEOs face today.
Ajay Banga
President and Chief Executive
Officer, MasterCard, US
12 19th Annual Global CEO Survey
As technology and other factors create an
environment of higher transparency, CEOs have
set their radar on a wide range of stakeholders.
Customers remain the top priority, with 90% of
CEOs indicating they have a high or very high
impact on their business strategy (see Figure 6).
But government and regulators come in second
(cited by 69% of CEOs). That’s higher than
industry competitors and peers (67%) and no
doubt reflects CEOs’ enduring concerns about
over-regulation in the marketplace.
The views of these and other stakeholders,
including employees and investors, aren’t just
evolving but diverging, as CEOs have told us.
Customer behaviour, in particular, has become
more complicated as values and buying
preferences evolve. The three biggest trends
CEOs see as most influencing those views –
technological advances, demographic changes
and global economic shifts – as well as the
interactions between them, are only going to
continue to drive change (see Figure B, Looking
for more data?, page 34).
Addressing greater
expectations
Customers
and clients
90%
Providers of
capital (including
activist investors)
41%
Supply chain
partners
48%
Government
and regulators
69%
Employees
(including
trade unions)
51%
Industry competitors
and peers
67%
Figure 6 Customers and clients are top priority for CEOs
Q: What impact do the following wider stakeholder groups have on your organisation’s strategy?
The way we deal with our
customers and charge our
customers and delight our
customers has changed
completely from the old
way of doing business.
Johan Dennelind
CEO, TeliaSonera AB, Sweden
Note: Respondents who indicated high or very high impact
13
PwC
So what do your stakeholders want?
We were not surprised to see that the majority
of CEOs (70%) feel their customers are most
interested in cost, convenience and functionality.
But we were surprised to discover that more
than a quarter (27%) of CEOs believe that
their customers are seeking relationships with
organisations that address wider stakeholder
needs (Figure 7). This surges to 44% when CEOs
consider what their customers will prioritise in five
years’ time. In the future it seems clear that CEOs
believe customers will put a premium on the way
companies conduct themselves in global society.
That’s a lot of change in a relatively short time.
And it isn’t just happening on the customer front.
On the talent side it’s even more pronounced.
Fifty-nine percent of CEOs believe that top
talent wants to work with organisations that
share their social values and 67% feel it will
be important in five years. Meanwhile, 37%
of CEOs believe their investors seek ethical
investments and 45% believe this will be
the case in five years.
At the heart of this evolution in values lies
technology. CEOs are convinced it will
transform stakeholder expectations of business
in the next five years, with 77% of business
leaders naming it as a top-three influencer.
Mobile connectivity and social media in
particular have become fundamental ways to
get information and buy goods and services.2
The ‘Uberization’ of a growing number of
sectors – offering quick, simple and dynamic
ways to access goods and services using mobile
apps – is also becoming an important trend in
changing customer perceptions of value. At the
same time, these technologies are giving more
people more access to more information about
what companies do and the impact of their
actions. Together, these factors are helping to
reshape how people interact with and think
about brands, albeit in very different ways.
... as a consequence of the
internet and the digital
way of doing things,
customers basically
want to do a lot of things
themselves. They’re
self-directed, as we call it.
They know everything.
They Google everything.
Therefore they come to the
bank with a completely
different expectation.
Ralph Hamers
CEO, ING Group, Netherlands
Our purpose is centred
on creating value for
wider stakeholders
We prioritise long-
term over short-
term profitability
Our customers seek
relationships with
organisations that
address wider
stakeholder needs
Top talent prefers
to work for
organisations
with social
values which
are aligned to
their own
Our investors are
seeking ethical
investments
Creating value for
wider stakeholders
helps us to be
profitable
We are expected
to address wider
stakeholder needs
Corporate
responsibility
is core to
everything
we do
We report on financial
and non-financial
matters in our reporting
67%
72%
64%
84%
52%
37%
59%
27%
82%
71%
81%
70%
85%
55%
45%
67%
44%
87%
Today
In five years
Figure 7 CEOs believe customers are seeking relationships with
organisations that address wider stakeholder needs
Q: Thinking about the wider stakeholder expectations you see, which of these
statements best describes your organisation today?
Q: Which of these statements best describes successful organisations in your
sector in five years' time?
90%
of CEOs say customers
have the biggest impact
on strategy
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19th Annual Global CEO Survey
Is this the era of the good consumer?
It’s long been assumed that only a small
percentage of consumers seek out ethical
and sustainable products and services.
There’s growing evidence, however, that this
is changing. Take the consumer goods giant,
Unilever. Its portfolio of so-called ‘Sustainable
Living’ brands now equals half of the company’s
total growth and is growing twice as fast as
Unilever’s other brands.3 It’s just one of nine
companies globally that generate a billion
dollars or more in annual revenue from
sustainable products or services.4 Indeed, in
2015 sales of consumer goods from brands with
a demonstrated commitment to sustainability
grew more than 4% globally.5 As Wilson Ferreira
Jr., CEO of CPFL Energia, observes, “Today’s
consumers make choices not only based on the
quality of the service provided, but even based
on the causes that a company supports. In fact,
we are living in the era of the good consumer.”
Part of this change is being amplified by
demographics: the millennial generation and its
growing purchasing power. Globally, 10,000
people turn 30 every day and it appears they’re
more likely to buy from companies that take
action on sustainability issues.6 Campbell Soup
is one company that’s taking notice. It’s just
bought Plum Organic Baby Food, giving the
company “a window into millennial parents
and an understanding of how to improve the
way children are eating and making healthier
selections at a very young age ... Training the
taste-buds of the next generation is meaningful
to us, and very much aligned with our company
purpose,” according to Denise Morrison,
President and Chief Executive Officer of
US-based Campbell Soup Company.
And what about the expectations of emerging
markets consumers? They face the challenges
of forging a middle-class lifestyle amid
diminishing access to natural resources and
rapid urbanisation, with its associated problems
like pollution and overcrowding. CEOs in Africa
and Asia Pacific are more likely to say that their
customers seek out organisations that address
the needs of a wider set of stakeholders (39%
and 31%, respectively) compared to the global
total (27%).
Yet interpreting customer views isn’t a simple
black-or-white picture. Those same emerging
markets consumers, in Asia Pacific for example,
are still happy to drive SUVs as opposed to more
fuel-efficient vehicles.7 And there’s evidence
that those same millennials who value so-called
green products and services are also driven by
getting the best deal.8
A central concern – the quest for trust
It’s hard enough for companies to juggle current
customer expectations while delivering results
year in, year out. Yet CEOs know that they must
take on an even more challenging task and that
is to start preparing their businesses today for
the more complex customers of tomorrow. They
worry that not doing so could impact trust in
their brand, creating a significant risk to the
long-term viability of their business. CEOs are
all too familiar with the fallout from breaches
of trust. Over half the CEOs surveyed (55%)
are concerned about the lack of trust in business
today – compared with 37% just three years
ago. The Edelman Trust Barometer 2015 also
showed that public levels of trust in business
in 2015 had declined to the lowest level since
2008 – and that CEOs were seen as among
the least credible sources of information.9
The challenge facing business leaders is
this: are they trusted to help navigate this
increasingly complex landscape?
Perhaps the most eloquent description of the
problem was articulated by John Nelson,
chairman of Lloyd’s, the global specialist
insurance market. As he explained to a meeting
of business leaders in 2015, “Most concerning
of all in my mind is that we are seeing a definite
shift in the attitudes towards business of
populations around the world. There is a lack
of trust in business – big business in particular
– and this is leading – in terms of real issues
in some cases – to mistrust in capitalism.”10
There is a body of research supporting the
idea that, when there is a high level of trust
in a company, it drives business performance
by attracting new customers and retaining
existing ones.11 A high level of trust also makes
employees more committed to staying with
the company, partners are more willing to
collaborate and investors more prepared
to entrust stewardship of their funding.
Consequently, those organisations that can
build trust seem to garner significant benefits.
Addressing greater expectations
I think our social
purpose and the
associated emotional
engagement from our
colleagues is one of the
keys to developing a
winning successful
strategy for Legal &
General. Why that is
important is it creates
tremendous trust
amongst our customers
and the other politicians
who are helping shape
the future, whether those
are local politicians or
national politicians, and
they want to engage with
trustworthy companies.
Dr. Nigel Wilson
CEO, Legal & General, UK
15
PwC
What do you stand for?
In this increasingly complex world, are leaders
altering their organisation’s purpose in order to
reflect greater expectations of business? We
found that almost one in four (24%) said their
organisation’s purpose had changed within the
last three years to reflect broader stakeholder
expectations, and an additional 45% felt that this
had always been the case. In total 69% of all
CEOs linked their organisation’s purpose to a
broad set of constituents in society (see Figure 8).
But what do CEOs really mean by purpose? For
some, it’s why their business exists; for others
it’s more around what their businesses do or
aim to achieve, or how business is done. And
how do they perceive their organisation’s
broader impact on society? When asked to
describe their corporate purpose, CEOs talked
about value for one or more of a variety of
stakeholders, including shareholders, supply
chain partners, employees, customers and
society at large – as well as their business itself,
in terms of things like growth, productivity or
costs (see Figure 9).
24%
16%
Changed within
last three years
45%
Have always had
broader purpose
Not changed and not
considering doing so
12%
Not changed but
considering doing so
Figure 8 A majority of leaders have an organisational purpose that
reflects greater expectations of business
Q: In which of the following ways has your organisational purpose been impacted by
wider stakeholder expectations?
Figure 9 CEOs describe their corporate
purpose in terms of value for a
variety of stakeholders
Q: In your own words, what is the purpose of your
organisation today? To create value for...
Our customers
Wider society
Our business
Our supply chain
Our shareholders
Our people
53%
31%
26%
16%
14%
5%
... our purpose is to be
an effective, responsible
champion of low-
carbon electricity.
Jean-Bernard Lévy
CEO and Chairman, EDF,
France
Purpose is something you
carry in your heart, not
something an ad agency
makes up. So we pulled
the company’s purpose
out of our people’s hearts
and manifested it in seven
words: Real food that
matters for life’s moments.
We validated those words
with consumers and our
employees. Consumers
told us stories about how
our brands really matter
to them. That’s led to an
umbrella over all of our
brands, that purpose can
encompass and motivate
our people around why
what we do every day
matters.
Denise Morrison
President and Chief Executive
Officer, Campbell Soup
Company, US
Base: 1,982 (includes additional interviews in some countries)
Note: Respondents may have highlighted more than one dimension
in response to this question.
16
19th Annual Global CEO Survey
... once you have done
your bit – fulfilled your
social responsibilities
and formed a community
with shared interests,
with local people –
they will welcome your
projects and provide huge
support. So a company’s
own interest and the
social value it provides
are closely connected.
In fact, this is also a kind
of investment, and it
always brings returns.
Li Huaizhen
President, China Minsheng
Investment Corp., Ltd., China
Addressing greater expectations
Over half of CEOs (53%) define their
organisation by the value that’s created for
customers. But of those CEOs, over a third
(35%) also talk about value for wider society,
employees and/or supply chain partners,
reflecting a clear recognition of the changing
expectations of their customers.
This acknowledgement of the changing needs
of customers – as well as those of other
stakeholders, including their employees – is
reflected in other ways that CEOs describe their
organisation. Eighty-four percent of CEOs
believe their companies are expected to address
wider stakeholder expectations; 82% tell us
their company prioritises long-term over
short-term views; 64% say that corporate social
responsibility is core to their business rather
than being a stand-alone programme; and 72%
say their company reports on non-financial as
well as financial matters (see Figure 7).
52%
of CEOs say creating value
for wider stakeholders
helps profitability
17
PwC
Such efforts, moreover, are seen to be
compatible with profitability, albeit in different
ways. Fifty-two percent of CEOs say that
creating value for a wider set of stakeholders
helps profitability. Richard Goyder, Managing
Director of Wesfarmers, a diversified
conglomerate headquartered in Australia, puts
it this way, “I don’t think, as a listed company,
there’s any doubt that our primary objective is
to generate returns for our investors. But we
have to do that sustainably, we have to do it
ethically and we have to do it in a way that
contributes to the communities in which we
operate. That’s for our own good anyway.
Because if we help the communities in which we
operate then those communities will have more
capacity to do business with us in the future.”
Forty-six percent of CEOs, meanwhile, say
profitability is the platform that helps provide
value for a wider set of stakeholders. As Don
Lam, Chief Executive Officer and Founding
Partner of Vietnam-based investment
management and real estate development
firm VinaCapital, says, “... our core objective
as an investment firm is always making money
for investors, first and foremost. The reason
why I’m saying that ... is that you need to make
money so that you can use that profit and give
it back to society.”
CEOs aren’t only responding to customer and
other stakeholder needs however; they’re very
aware that their competitors and peers are
also preparing for the future. Five years from
now, CEOs believe that the most successful
organisations in their sector will have shifted
their views and priorities in terms of recognising
changing expectations and the value in addressing
them, embedding corporate responsibility into
their business, reporting on non-financial
matters and taking the long-term view.
You know, very recently we
reviewed the company’s
purpose, and we made a
slight change. It used to be
‘Building the Future’. Now
it’s ‘Building a Better
Future’. CEMEX is a
company that embraced
sustainability a long time
ago – and we believe that
sustainability is creating a
new economy, a different
type of economy, reshaping
certain economic activities.
And we’re saying that the
first companies to
understand and embrace
this will be the companies
that will be on top of the
trend and doing better
business than others.
Fernando Gonzalez Olivieri
CEO, CEMEX, Mexico
Has your organisation undertaken scenario modelling or
other initiatives to better understand how global trends like
technological advances, demographic changes and global
economic shifts are driving customer expectations today
and tomorrow?
How are your CIO and CMO working together to make the
best use of data analytics for a full picture of your customers
now and into the future? How about your workforce?
As customers, employees and other stakeholders
increasingly care about what companies stand for, how are
you demonstrating your organisation’s purpose and values?
How is your organisation building trust by better understanding
stakeholders’ views?
Tough questions to ask about
addressing greater expectations
?
18
19th Annual Global CEO Survey
Transforming: technology,
innovation and talent
45%
42%
33%
31%
31%
24%
23%
20%
Additional costs
to doing business
Unclear or inconsistent
standards or regulations
Conflict between stakeholder interests
and financial performace expectations
Customers’ unwillingness to pay
Lack of the right capabilities
Insufficient information about
wider stakeholder expectations
Inability to effectively
execute on our strategy
Misalignment between stakeholder
interests and business strategy
We have to have
propositions which are
based on sound ethics
but which customers
are prepared to pay a
commercial price for.
And getting that balance
right is fascinating and
not necessarily
straightforward.
Richard Pennycook
CEO, The Co-operative
Group, UK
Walking the talk
It’s evident that most businesses today, in
defining what they stand for, recognise the
needs of a wider set of stakeholders – and
their customers’ expectations about how they
address those needs. Translating a broader
corporate purpose into the everyday, however,
is another matter entirely. Even the most
committed can find it challenging in the
extreme to reshape their company while facing
day-to-day battles on every front to fight off
competition, grow revenues and cut costs.
There are a number of barriers that CEOs say
they’re encountering when responding to the
changing expectations of customers and other
stakeholders. Chief among these are the
additional costs of doing business, cited by
45% of CEOs (see Figure 10). Compliance with
unclear or inconsistent regulations, cited by
42% of CEOs, also incur costs, which are often
passed onto customers via higher prices (see
Why government and business need to work
together, page 24). This adds to the premium
that customers often have to pay for goods and
services deemed sustainable – something that
31% of CEOs don’t think they’re willing to pay.
45%
of CEOs say additional
costs of doing
business are a barrier
to responding to
stakeholder expectations
19
PwC
45%
42%
33%
31%
31%
24%
23%
20%
Additional costs
to doing business
Unclear or inconsistent
standards or regulations
Conflict between stakeholder interests
and financial performace expectations
Customers’ unwillingness to pay
Lack of the right capabilities
Insufficient information about
wider stakeholder expectations
Inability to effectively
execute on our strategy
Misalignment between stakeholder
interests and business strategy
Figure 10 CEOs are facing a number of barriers to execution when responding to changing
customer and stakeholder expectations
Q: Which of the following barriers, if any, is your organisation encountering when responding to wider stakeholder
expectations?
These barriers to execution are creating
conflicts for companies trying to balance
changing stakeholder expectations with
pursuing business growth and profitability
over both the short and long term.
Nevertheless, CEOs are increasingly aware that
they must overcome these barriers in order to
transform their businesses and align them fully
behind broader strategies.
20 19th Annual Global CEO Survey
Putting technology to work
Technology, as in most situations nowadays,
can help.
As we’ve seen in the previous section, business
leaders understand all too well how technology
is transforming their relationship with
customers as well as other stakeholders. So it
makes sense that they see technology as the best
way to assess and deliver on changing customer
expectations, with 51% of CEOs making
significant changes in this area (see Figure 11).
At the top of CEOs’ minds is the use of technology
to better interpret the complex and evolving
needs of customers in order to better engage
with them. Nearly a quarter of CEOs (24%) feel
they don’t have enough information about what
customers or other stakeholders want, and a
recent PwC survey showed that the top-three
challenge most cited by global operations leaders
(63%) is understanding what customers value.12
Sixty-eight percent of CEOs back the power of
data and analytics to deliver these results and
65% favour customer relationship management
(CRM) systems (see Figure 12).
Indeed, CEOs’ growing faith in, and
dependence on, data and analytics signals
just how far a data-based, scientific mindset
has penetrated even the complex world of
stakeholder management. And as big data,
cloud computing and the Internet of Things
become even more important in modern
business, the role that technology plays in
helping understand wider stakeholder
expectations is also being applied to meeting
and even surpassing those expectations.
Transforming: technology, innovation and talent
39%
44%
44%
51%
51%
57%
49%
51%
49%
48%
35%
34%
33%
31%
44%
45%
49%
51%
44%
6%
6%
6%
11%
12%
9%
14%
24%
15%
18%
18%
34%
31%
30%
23%
23%
18%
How we use technology to
assess and deliver on wider
stakeholder expectations
How we define and manage
risks
How we manage our
brand, marketing and
communications
How we measure success
and what we hold
ourselves accountable for
How we partner and who
we partner with
Workforce rights and
wellbeing
How we minimise social
and environmental impacts
of our business operations
Our values, ethics and
codes of conduct
How we maximise societal
value of our R&D and
innovation
How we develop new
‘ethical’ products and
services
How we minimise social
and environmental impacts
of our supply chain
How we manage
our tax affairs
No change at all
Some change
Significant change
Figure 11 Technology and risk management are the top areas in which
CEOs are making significant changes to respond to
stakeholder expectations
Q: To what extent are you making changes in the following areas in response to
changing stakeholder expectations?
21
PwC
Figure 12 Most CEOs see data and analytics
technologies as generating the
greatest return for stakeholder
engagement
Q: Select the connecting technologies you think generate
the greatest return in terms of engagement with wider
stakeholders
68%
65%
50%
33%
30%
23% 21%
44%
53%
Customer relationship
management systems
Data and
analytics
R&D and innovation
Social media communications
and engagement
Web-enabled
collaboration tools
Online reporting
technologies
Personal data security
Social listening tools
Investor
relationship tools
The innovation edge
Over half of CEOs ranked R&D and innovation
technologies as generating the greatest return
in terms of successful stakeholder engagement
(see Figure 12). The winners in the innovation
game, however, will be those that harness
technology and innovation to deliver products
and services that are cost-effective, convenient,
functional and sustainable.
Today, some of the most in-demand products
reflect customers’ changing values. Take Nest’s
energy efficiency home monitors for example,
or Nike’s shoes and clothing developed with
tools enabling suppliers and designers to
quickly assess sustainability criteria. Companies
like GE, meanwhile, are pioneering innovation
in healthcare and smart cities.
Digitisation is central to these efforts, allowing
companies to obtain and utilise data about
business processes that’s necessary to support
innovation efforts, and to remove costs from the
system through greater efficiencies.
And while technology plays a critical role
in innovation, often it’s in conjunction with
business model change as epitomised by the
likes of Airbnb and its ‘sharing economy’ peers.
Most companies, however, struggle to achieve
innovation-led growth. Innovating to meet
customers’ changing demands for sustainable
and ethical goods and services adds a
challenging dimension to this pursuit, one that
many companies are only just beginning to
address. This probably explains why fewer
numbers of CEOs are making significant change
in maximising the societal value of their R&D
and innovation and developing ethical products
and services (see Figure 11).
The major trend that
all industries face is the
impact of technology
on every single aspect
of a company. Whether
it’s your operational
efficiency in applying
technology to traditionally
manual processes.
Whether it’s enhanced
intelligence, from big data
analysis to help managing
marketing, risk, product
creation, or assessment
of ideas … technology
is going to lead to sea
changes in how companies
are organised and run
across all industries, and
ours is no different.
Brian Moynihan
Chief Executive Officer, Bank
of America Corporation, US
Our company was
founded by Thomas
Edison almost 130 years
ago and he has a great
quote that I like repeating
very much. He said: “I
find out what the world
needs. Then, I go ahead
and invent it.” And that
has been exactly the core
value of our company
over 130 years. We listen
to our customers. We
understand what they
need and we continuously
innovate around
customer needs. While
we’re doing that, the area
that we have chosen for
ourselves is solving tough
world problems.
Canan M. Özsoy
President and CEO, General
Electric Turkey
... the biggest opportunity
for us is digitalisation ...
and based on [that] we
will improve all our
business and create
added value for all
our stakeholders.
Mikko Helander
President and CEO, Kesko
Corporation, Finland
22 19th Annual Global CEO Survey
Transforming: technology, innovation and talent
To meet these new
expectations, we’re
leveraging our R&D and
our 2000 researchers,
who are developing
innovations for the smart
grid, new energies,
carbon storage, and more.
We’re also developing new
offers, with household
management services like
the Linky metre, EDF &
Moi and e-equilibre.
Jean-Bernard Lévy
CEO and Chairman, EDF,
France
The people edge
As companies look to meet the complicated
expectations of stakeholders and society, they
will need a new generation of people with an
entrepreneurial mindset who can harness
technology and drive innovation.
Sometimes it’s easy to equate technology-led
success solely with Silicon Valley internet
models. However, PwC’s comprehensive study
of the world’s self-made billionaires showed that
over 80% of these mega-wealthy individuals
made their fortunes in highly competitive
markets like consumer products, retail or
business services.13 This means that almost
any market can be reinvented.
I believe shareholder
value is not about
increasing the short-term
stock price but about a
set of strategic actions
led by innovation and
employee commitment
that aim at long-term
value creation in a
sustainable manner.
André Calantzopoulos
Chief Executive Officer,
Philip Morris International,
Inc., Switzerland
Our focus on our pipeline
of future leaders
Workplace culture and
behaviours
Effective performance
management
Pay, incentives and benefits
we provide for our workforce
Our focus on skills and
adaptability in our people
Our reputation as ethical and
socially responsibile employers
Our focus on diversity
and inclusion
Our use of predictive
workforce analysis
Our focus on productivity through
automation and technology
38%
30%
22%
4%
16%
49%
41%
33%
29%
Figure 13 CEOs are most likely to change their talent strategy to focus on their leadership pipeline
Q: What aspects of your talent strategy are you changing to make the greatest impact on attracting, retaining and
engaging the people you need to remain relevant and competitive?
23
PwC
Think about the new skills that CEOs need to
be comfortable with, if current CEO predictions
are right. They'll need to be able to operate in
a world with multiple stakeholders, different
values and diverse attitudes toward law and
rights, all in an increasingly volatile economic
context. In addition, they will have to be
comfortable with data, analytics and many new
technologies. This type of leader will also need
to be able to develop new leaders with the right
skills and adaptability to deliver the ‘people
edge’ required.
Focusing on the leadership pipeline will also help
ensure that future leaders can present consistent
messages to the wider employee base, and the
visibility and ‘tone from the top’ that’s necessary
to turn words into action.
The ability to align the entire workforce behind
business and growth goals, however, is also
critical to execution. As Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz,
CEO and Managing Director of Australia-based
asset management company Mirvac Group says,
“Aligning people to the business, the changes, the
expectations and our purpose is absolutely key.”
We have a very strong
corporate culture. It is
very much centred on
being a responsible
owner, being a
responsible employer and
having a role in society,
as well as of course
creating profitable
companies ... I think it’s
also a competitive edge to
have in the coming 10 to
20 years.
Susanna Campbell
CEO, Ratos AB, Sweden
It’s no wonder, then, that 72% of CEOs are
concerned about the availability of key skills,
particularly with 48% planning to increase
headcount in the coming year. And it explains
why by far the most CEOs (75%) say that a
skilled, educated and adaptable workforce
should be a priority for business in the country
where they’re based (see Figure 14). This is such
a vital factor that CEOs see it as a top priority
for both business and government – together.
Brian Moynihan, Chief Executive Officer at
Bank of America Corporation acknowledges the
importance of people, “Even with all the new
technology, people skills are actually more
important now. Whether it’s providing day-to-
day services in our bank branches or managing
our data analytics: it’s all about people.”
So what are CEOs doing to develop the
workforce they need for today and tomorrow?
Nearly half are making changes to how they
develop their leadership pipeline (see Figure
13). It’s not hard to understand why. This new
generation of leaders has grown up in a
different world and is better equipped to tackle
thorny societal issues.
49%
of CEOs are changing
their focus on the
leadership pipeline
24 19th Annual Global CEO Survey
Why government and business need
to work together
Across every industry, tensions abound between
companies, who believe they can be trusted to
do the right thing, and governments that aren’t
so sure. The regulations governments are trying
to enforce are intended to be in the best interests
of the public, as consumers or employees. But
they can involve reforms, penalties or higher
taxes for business that result in higher costs -
including those that arise when business doesn’t
have enough clarity about how regulations
should be interpreted and implemented. These
costs, in turn, are likely to be passed onto
customers in the form of higher prices.
This no doubt contributes to CEOs’ near
universal frustration that over-regulation is
a threat to their company’s growth, and why
42% cite unclear or inconsistent regulations
as a barrier to responding to changing customer
expectations. What’s more, increasingly
divergent political and legal systems around
the world make it harder for multinationals
to comply with rules or standards in their
countries of operation without falling foul
of their home country’s laws.
Regulators have to
understand the new
environment in which we
operate in order to make
public policies that really
respond to the new
situations – rather than
getting carried away
by the sort of political
situations or populism
that sometimes lead to
inadequate public
policies, which can slow
down development and,
in our case, can hinder
us in our task of creating
value and trust.
David Bojanini
President, Grupo SURA,
Colombia
But viewing government through a combative
lens is unlikely to help companies in the long
run. For one thing, government and regulators
have a big impact on companies, with 69% of
CEOs citing them as highly influential on
business strategy. And, despite their complaints
about government interference, many companies
expect the state to provide considerable help,
whether it’s improving workforce skills and
education or the infrastructure needed by any
modern economy.
As both business and government navigate
changing public expectations, they’re going
to need each other more than they might think.
In the end, businesses want to create the best
value they can for customers, and doing that
increasingly means creating the best value
they can for society at large. These are the
same goals government shares – a win-win.
For business, understanding why regulation
is there in the first place, rather than focusing
only on interpretation and compliance can help
ease the stand-off. Regulations are often first
introduced in response to a market failure or
to embed good business practice in legislation.
Recognising the spirit of what government is
trying to achieve can help businesses pre-empt
the need for regulation by establishing core
principles and values to guide decision-making.
It also paves the way for active alignment with
government goals and programmes in order
to help shape them and improve their
effectiveness. Such actions will also serve
to rebuild trust with regulators.
On the other hand, more recognition is needed
by government of the extent to which regulation
can create additional burdens and costs, which
must be weighed against societal benefits. If
business expects constant legislative change, a
climate of uncertainty will threaten investment,
national growth and competitiveness. What’s
needed is regulation that’s proportionate,
accountable, consistent, transparent and
targeted. Streamlining public sector processes
through digitisation − and involving business
in the co-design of implementation − can also
go a long way toward enabling this process and
easing the compliance burden for companies.
Transforming: technology, innovation and talent
25
PwC
Generally, social spheres
that go beyond a
company's business
and need investment the
most are education and
healthcare. Education
is the care of human life.
Herman Gref
CEO and Chairman
of the Executive Board,
Sberbank, Russia
80%
65%
0
% of CEOs who think issue should be a top-three business priority
%
o
f
C
E
O
s
w
ho
t
hi
nk
is
su
e
sh
o
ul
d
b
e
a
to
p
-t
hr
ee
g
o
ve
rn
m
en
t
p
ri
o
ir
ty
A skilled, educated and
adaptable workforce
Adequate physical and
digital infrastructure
High levels of employment
Reduced environmental impacts
Greater income
equality
Good health and well-being of the workforce
Workforce diversity and inclusiveness
Safeguards around
usage of personal data
Figure 14 CEOs say that creating a skilled, educated and adaptable
workforce should be a priority for both business and
government
Q: Which three of these outcomes should be government/business priorities in the
country in which you are based?
?
How are you ensuring you’re investing in the right
technologies to enable open engagement with your
customers and wider stakeholder groups?
Have you identified the right capabilities to support you
from strategy to execution?
Is your innovation geared towards generating offerings that
meet big societal needs and generate good long-term ROI?
What are you doing to enable your people to work towards
better meeting new and wider stakeholder expectations?
How are you working with government to create better
outcomes for customers and employees?
Tough questions to ask about
transforming: technology,
innovation and talent
This is, however, proving challenging for
organisations to achieve. Despite the
importance of getting the right talent, just 30%
of CEOs are making changes to their focus on
skills and adaptability in their people (Figure
13). And despite their embrace of technology
in all things customer-related, companies are
doing little to change either how they use
technology to improve productivity or their use
of workforce analytics, with only 4% of CEOs
seeking change in that area (see Figure 13).
CEOs also recognise the importance of tying
workplace culture to behaviour, with 41%
making changes to this aspect of their talent
strategies (see Figure 13). Indeed, companies
that are highly coherent – those with strong
alignment between their value proposition,
capabilities, and products and services – view
their culture as their greatest asset.14 But despite
the cultural changes that CEOs are making
in their people strategies, such developments
don’t loom large in the context of the wider
organisation. Just 31% of CEOs are pursuing
significant changes to values, ethics and codes
of conduct – compared to 51% for technology.
75%
of CEOs say that a
skilled, educated and
adaptable workforce
should be a priority
for business
26 19th Annual Global CEO Survey
Measuring and
communicating success
In a complex and rapidly changing world, we
were interested in understanding which areas
CEOs want to better measure and which areas
they want to better communicate to the
multiple stakeholders who interact with their
organisations. We found that the key metrics CEOs
would like to improve are the ones traditionally
seen as ‘harder’ drivers of business success like
innovation and risks, while the areas they want
to better communicate are emotional, ‘softer’
issues around values and purpose (see Figure 15).
But customers are seeking information about
both the ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ drivers of business
success. Indeed, real-time dashboards created
and managed by users themselves are becoming
feasible, raising expectations for more fresh and
relevant information and ways of viewing it.
Ultimately the CEO must deal with matters
of the head and the heart, the rational and the
emotional. Our research suggests that there is
much room to improve on both the assessment
and communication of key business areas,
including of course, core financial data.
A new mindset for measurement
How should business be doing more to measure
impact and value as stakeholder expectations
evolve? We put this question to CEOs and the
top-two areas they identified brought to
mind the fabled Chinese character for crisis –
a combination of the symbols for risk and
opportunity. Over half of CEOs (55%) cited
55%
of CEOs think business
could do more to
measure the impact
and value of innovation
We like to measure
things. We say internally
that if you cannot
measure it, it doesn’t
exist. That’s something
that we always mention
because that’s the way
that we approach things.
Dr. Nuno Amado
CEO, Banco Comercial
Português, S.A., Portugal
27
PwC
the need to measure innovation, with the
measurement of risk coming a close second
(53%) (see Figure 15). This complex, combined
theme resonates in many CEOs’ responses – they
recognise the world has changed and that they
must deal both with the new while protecting
the old; they’re forging ahead to serve multiple
stakeholders while focusing on delivering a
profit for shareholders and better convenience,
price and functionality for customers.
With most companies not yet having cracked
the code on measuring innovation, it’s little
surprise that this is the area most CEOs want
to better measure. And it could help explain
why CEOs struggle with how to optimise the
societal value of R&D and innovation.
A large part of the challenge lies in the adoption
and use of technology. There’s a digital divide
between those organisations that have grown
up in the digital world, and everyone else.
‘Digital native’ companies have a comprehensive
set of online data about their entire business,
with feedback response loops at every point of
their processes. They are, indeed, constantly
managing metrics, making them very effective
at process change and quick, effective execution
– a key driver of successful innovation.
And it’s not simply about digitalisation and
moving everything online, but continuously
generating, collecting, analysing and reporting
information, with coverage that’s both deep
and broad.
It's clear that CEOs recognise the importance of
data and analytics, with most citing this as the
technology that they think provides the highest
return for stakeholder engagement (see Figure
12). The thirst for better speed and accuracy in
this more dynamic environment is growing and
new competitors who start with a fresh, faster
measurement system are driving entire
industries forward at a quicker pace.
Innovation
Key risks
Non-financial
indicators
Employee
practices
Business
strategy
Environmental
impact
Non-statutory
financial
information
Organisational
purpose and
value
Impact on wider
communities
Traditional
financial
statements
Measure
Communicate
1st
4th
2nd
7th
3rd
3rd
4th
2nd
5th
6th
6th
8th
7th
9th
8th
1st
9th
5th
10th
10th
PSI: Customers and clients
PSI: Providers of capital