Over the previous 12 months, an rising variety of corporations have nervous that they won’t survive amid speedy technological change and rising financial uncertainties except they reinvent themselves, PwC’s twenty seventh annual world CEO survey discovered.
The report finds that synthetic intelligence may very well be the important thing to reinvention, and consequently, to greater revenue margins.
PwC interviewed 4,702 chief executives throughout 105 international locations and territories, together with 114 in Canada.
Forty-five per cent of CEOs stated that their corporations won’t be viable within the subsequent 10 years. This represents a 39 per cent improve from final 12 months. A 3rd (32 per cent) additionally advised their companies will not be round in a decade.
CEOs are additionally involved about inflation, geopolitical battle, and cybersecurity dangers, in addition to local weather change, however the important thing space of concern stays the financial system, with solely 25 per cent of Canadian CEOs believing that the native financial progress will enhance this 12 months, in comparison with 44 per cent of worldwide respondents who count on higher occasions for his or her nation’s financial system.
A latest Capterra report additionally confirmed that the stalling financial progress price in Canada could be the highest issue influencing enterprise objectives.
“We’re working in a continued poly-crisis atmosphere, additional sophisticated by powerful financial headwinds. Due to this fact, it isn’t shocking that Canadian CEOs are extra pessimistic than their world counterparts in terms of their outlook on financial progress,” stated Nicolas Marcoux, CEO, PwC Canada. “Whereas a comfortable recessionary touchdown could also be anticipated, CEOs discover themselves beneath rising strain to reinvent their organizations.”
On the brilliant facet, the overwhelming majority are taking motion, primarily pushed by the impetus of technological change and AI, the PwC survey indicated.
Lots of them have already kicked off their generative AI journeys, with 36 per cent of Canadian respondents (versus 32 per cent globally) saying they’ve adopted the expertise within the final 12 months. Nevertheless, they proceed to train warning, with most citing cybersecurity as a prime threat, adopted by misinformation, authorized/reputational dangers, and bias in direction of workers or prospects.
For many who are optimistic about AI, upskilling, funds constraints and operational inefficiencies stay prime obstacles, the report highlighted.
Fifty-five per cent of Canadian CEOs, in truth, agreed that generative AI would require important upskilling of their workforce within the subsequent three years.
Moreover, they revealed that 44 per cent of the time at present spent on a spread of labor processes was inefficient.
“Lowering inefficiencies is one space the place investments in applied sciences like generative AI may help,” the report reads. “And by participating with workers to assist them really feel protected proposing new methods of doing issues and giving them an lively position in change and reinvention, CEOs can’t solely uncover alternatives to speed up priorities like expertise adoption, but additionally discover much more options to the inefficient processes holding corporations again.”
Nevertheless, whereas investing in new software program can also be vital to reinvention initiatives, 56 per cent of Canadian choice makers find yourself regretting a software program funding choice, with a 3rd blaming unexpected prices, Capterra famous in its 2024 Tech Traits survey.
The survey advises corporations to drill down on 4 challenges earlier than making a software program funding choice:
- Figuring out the fitting expertise
- Safety issues
- Employees acceptance and coaching
- Compatibility with current techniques
Corporations also needs to create an inventory of potential product distributors, collect info utilizing numerous sources like software program comparability web sites, on-line opinions, and even generative AI instruments comparable to ChatGPT.
PwC, alternatively, advises Canadian corporations to concentrate on useful resource allocation to allow reinvention initiatives. This contains making powerful calls about a company’s belongings and specializing in the advantages of wanting past an organization’s partitions by embracing strategic partnerships, alliances, and ecosystems.
Canadian CEOs also needs to acknowledge the dimensions and the urgency of the challenges they face, and query the viability of their enterprise fashions in addition to the dangers they’re uncovered to.
“CEOs who’re extra involved about their group’s long-term viability are doing greater than others to adapt to at the moment’s intense enterprise pressures, which solely heightens the necessity for Canadian executives to take a look at further measures to identify rising dangers and hazards,” the PwC report stated. “Those that accomplish that might be higher capable of see the urgency to not simply speed up change and reinvention but additionally have interaction their groups and the entire group in sustaining it.”
