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CEOs change decision-making process to navigate uncertainty
When the world changes, CEOs have to change with it. According to PwC’s May 2025 Pulse Survey, chief executives are making sure they’re getting out of their echo chambers as they try to keep up with fast-changing trade policies and regulations in the early days of the Trump administration.
We asked CEOs how they’re changing their executive decision-making process and 58% say they’re talking to other executives and encouraging internal debate as they map a path through uncertainty. Half say they’re bringing in external advisors with outside perspectives to challenge their thinking.
Walk the halls and challenge the status quo
Rapid-fire changes on a wide range of topics during the opening days of the Trump administration have CEOs walking the halls seeking out other C-suite views of what to do next and encouraging internal debate (58%) and inviting in outsiders to ask hard questions about their strategy and assumptions (50%). CEOs tell us they’re also building in more feedback loops and revisiting strategic decisions more often (both 48%).
Talking through the possibilities and challenges seems to coincide with greater C-suite alignment around strategy. Nearly all CEOs in our survey (94%) say there's executive consensus on the company’s long-term growth plans, even in today’s turbulent business landscape.
CEOs say there aren’t enough corporate resources to go around
You can only move fast and break things if you have the time, talent and money to put them back together. CEOs tell us one of their biggest obstacles to achieving their corporate vision, aside from the macro uncertainty, is resource constraints (with 42% citing it as a top-3 barrier). Whether the budget's too slim, the talent pool’s too shallow or the days just slip away too quickly, executives often have demands that can’t be met.
Sixty percent of CEOs expect today’s policy and financial market volatility to ease within the next 12 months, a more optimistic outlook than executives overall (48%). CEOs are eager to keep their companies moving quickly. They know they must make decisions with confidence and speed to get through the current turmoil and to position their companies for long-term success.
What you can do
- In uncertain times, process is power. A healthy decision-making process grounded in both data and judgment is critical because it’s the only thing that leaders can fully control. By incorporating quantitative data alongside qualitative insights, leaders can build a repeatable practice that applies consistent methods and rules, helping to reduce individual subjectivity and confirmation bias.
- Use scenario planning as a strategic edge. A sound process doesn’t eliminate uncertainty from decision-making, but it can help you manage it more advantageously. Scenario planning plays a key role here. As a CEO, you can map execution uncertainty (“Can we do this?”) to market uncertainty (“Will the market want this?”), assign explicit probabilities to each potential outcome and then use this opportunity matrix to guide your investments and actions.
- Break out of your echo chamber. Cast a wide net for contradictory viewpoints. Make it clear that pushing back on C-suite thinking isn’t just allowed, it’s expected. That’s how better decisions, and fewer blind spots, happen.
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Executive takes on 100 days in: What’s next for business
About the survey
Our latest PwC Pulse Survey, fielded May 1 to May 8, 2025, surveyed 678 executives and board members from Fortune 1000 and private companies about the current business environment, the risks executives are facing and their company’s strategic plans and priorities. Of the respondent pool, 50 were chief executives.
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