AT Kearney’s 2017 Views from the C-Suite
AT Kearney’s Global Business Policy Council has always been a happy landing pad for me. I’ve always found a lot of value in their focus on how businesses can best adapt and evolve in today’s political, economic and technological climates.
Their most recent report, 2017 Views from the C-Suite: Adapting to Disruption, authored by GBPC Chairman Paul Laudicina and MD Erik Petersen, probes how 400 global executives see the current business landscape, and reveals what these leaders see as the challenges and opportunities in today’s world of business.
Unsurprisingly, the report identifies global political uncertainty as the biggest external challenge businesses face:
- There’s a strong feeling amongst executives that the economic and political fallout from Brexit will grow, and that populist leaders and extremist political parties will continue to gain support in democracies around the world.
- There was shared concern about trade, with the majority of executives believing global trade and cross-border flows will decline as a result of protectionism.
- The majority also believed Donald Trump’s policies will do more harm than good to the American economy.
Executives point to the threat of cyberattacks as the biggest challenge to business operations, especially in light of a recent spike of high-profile cyberattacks:
- 85% of executives believe cyberattacks will become more frequent and costly, and cyberattacks were identified as the top-ranked challenge to business operations.
- Business model efficiency, skill at adopting new technologies and the ability to innovate were the next three highest ranked challenges to business operations.
While technology disruption is a key challenge, successful adoption of new technologies was the highest ranked opportunity for business operations:
- Executives were most focused on cloud computing, big data/predictive analysis, and mobile technology as new business technologies.
- Improving business model efficiency, improving strategic execution and successful innovation were the next highest ranked opportunities.
- A favourable competitive landscape was the top-ranked external opportunity. However, almost a third of executives also perceived this as a challenge, often because they’re experiencing weak market growth.
- A strong macroeconomic performance and expanding globalization were also cited as major external opportunities.
I recommend taking a look at the full report, which can be found here https://www.atkearney.com/gbpc/views-from-the-c-suite
