CEOs should be asking themselves these five questions transcript

How can CEOs win today’s race while running tomorrow’s?

PwC global leaders share their insights from the 2023 Global CEO Survey

Bob Moritz - Global Chairman, PwC
Emma Cox - Global Climate Leader, PwC United Kingdom
Sanjeev Krishan - Chairman, PwC India
Richard Oldfield - Former Global Markets Leader, PwC 

40% of the CEOs believe their business is going to be disrupted. 

And I think that's really reflecting all of the pressures that are on them in terms of how will climate impact their supply chains, actually what is technology going to their business, how will consumer preferences change? 

What should CEOs be doing now to address climate change?

Although we've seen a lot of CEOs taking action to assess strategies for climate change, not everybody has yet. The point about climate changes, is it doesn't just affect one bit of your business, it affects all of it. So you need to start by thinking about what are my risks, what are my opportunities and how can I actually set a plan in motion? 

And we shouldn't wait for that. And in fact, 65% of the CEOs in our recent survey that we did, said they're already taking action to reduce their emissions. But for those that haven't started yet, they should start by mapping their footprints, thinking about and understanding where their risks lie, and then coming up with strategies to address it. 

What should CEOs be doing to address cybersecurity risks?

The first thing on cyber security really is to be public advocates. We need to be bringing it out in every conversation. It is no longer just a SISO objective anymore. I think it is now a CEO's agenda and when we think about the CEO's agenda, it’s the entire organisation. The cyber risks are not only going to be restricted to your finance and accounts and so and so forth; it could actually challenge your whole identity, the corporate identity, identity and the identity of those who comprise that organisation.

How can CEOs maintain a growth mindset in the face of global economic uncertainty?

It is not a surprise that we see the amount of pessimism that's coming through. It's clear when you read the media or talk to organisations and for that matter, public officials. 

There’s lots of things that are going to be thrown at these companies that they can't control, but more importantly they need to react with the overall thesis of never waste a crisis. You have a crisis in front of you and take advantage of it to drive the change. It's a galvanising opportunity for CEO’s to take advantage of. 

What can CEOs do to empower others as critical decision-makers?

I know I find it a real challenge, delivering all of the short-term pressures and issues and challenges whilst thinking about how to drive the strategy for PwC and I don't think there's any difference for any CEO who's really running an organisation or a business leader. And the real challenge for us is actually how we build teams around us, with the right skill sets, actually with the same goal aspirations that we have, so that we can leverage them and delegate as much as we possibly can of that day-to-day activity, freeing us up to think about the longer-term aspirations that we have in the strategy execution. 

What short-term actions can CEOs take to enable long-term transformation?

So as they think about short term changes, what they should be thinking about is what short term change am I making today that gives me optionality for longer term change over the 10 year journey. And second, make sure that whatever changes were talking about give capacity, both financial capacity and time, to enable more change in the future. Organisations struggle with how much change they can put in the system, they have to find time to allow for that to be absorbed, so let's make sure we're faster, were smarter, more effective and efficient in the short term to create the capacity for longer term change that will be beneficial for them to survive and thrive.