PricewaterhouseCoopers recently launched its 11th annual CEO survey. Over 1100 CEOs took part in the Global CEO Survey. See some of the key highlights for 2008
PricewaterhouseCoopers office in Nairobi participated in the 11th Global CEO Survey dubbed “Succeeding in a connected world” and interviewed the following companies:
- Homegrown (Kenya) Ltd
- East African Breweries Limited
- Kenya Airways
- Eveready East Africa Ltd
- Transcentury Ltd
- Kenya Commercial Bank
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- Barclays Bank of Kenya
- Safaricom Ltd
- Mumias Sugar Company Ltd
- Nation Media Group
- Tamarind Group
- General Motors EA Ltd
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The results from the survey can be categorised into 4 main headings.
SECTION 1: TRENDS
Results from the interviews revealed that 91.6% of CEOs had confidence in the prospects of revenue growth for their companies over the following 12 months while 91.7% were confident in the prospects of revenue growth for their companies over the next three years.
83% of the CEOs were concerned about the downturn in major economies while another 83% were concerned about the inadequacy of infrastructure. The main area of concern for 91.7% of the CEOs was energy scarcity.
The survey shows that 41.7% of CEOs viewed improved sourcing / supply chain management as their key source of competitive advantage in achieving growth while 25% cited improved customer service.
SECTION 2: BUSINESS NETWORKS
58.3% of CEOs agreed that establishing business networks is an important business activity for their companies today while 83.3% agreed that networks will be a defining organizational principle for business in the near future.
The CEOs cited that the business networks in which they were involved in were effective in achieving a range of objectives and most importantly:
- In learning best practice
- Influencing government and regulatory policy
- Accessing new markets or customers
- Enhancing reputation or brand
- Improving corporate citizenship
SECTION 3: REGULATION
The CEOs considered tax regime (25%), law and enforcement (33.3%) and labour laws (16.7%) as the most important areas that the government could focus on to improve the business environment.
Majority of CEOs were of the view that the governments in countries where they operate in should aggressively change their tax rules and practices to increase tax revenue. CEOs cited that governments’ regulatory framework is based on the assumption that companies will act without integrity. Finally the survey established that 92% of CEOs interviewed factored in the regulatory framework when making decisions to a large extent.
SECTION 4: PEOPLE AGENDA
In the past three to five years, CEOs have felt that availability of skills has become a major constraint on growth. Majority of the interviewed CEOs agree that the people agenda is one of their top priorities and further, that their time is best spent on the people agenda.
Our survey shows that on addressing talent shortages within the organizations, CEOs most valued investing in training and development and collaborating with networks as the main methods of addressing the skill / talent shortages in their organizations. Other valued methods of achieving this as rated by the CEOs included offering better remuneration, redefining roles within the organization of external specialists and outsourcing business functions.
The CEOs cited three areas as the major people challenges that posed critical barriers to major changes that their organizations have implemented in the previous three years. They are:
- Lack of engagement or motivation of middle managers to drive change
- Lack of change management skills
- Experience in senior management as the major over the past three years
