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81% of CEOs see mobile technologies for customer engagement as the most strategically important in 2015. 80% see data mining and analysis technologies as the most strategically important, followed by cybersecurity (78%), Internet of Things (IoT) (65%), socially-enabled business processes (61%) and cloud computing (60%).
These and many other research findings are part of PwC’s 18th Annual Global CEO Survey. Released earlier today at the opening of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, the study provides insights into CEO’s current priorities and future plans across a wide spectrum of areas.
PwC interviewed 1,322 CEOs in 77 countries, with 28% of the interviews conducted by telephone, 59% online and 13% via mailed questionnaires. PwC’s sample is selected based on the percentage of the total GDP of countries included in the survey, to ensure CEOs’ views are fairly represented across all major countries and regions of the world. Please see page 40 of the study for additional details of the methodology. The free PDF of PwC’s 18th Annual Global CEO Survey is downloadable here.
Key Take-Aways
- CEOs are more confident in their enterprises’ business prospects in 2015 than they are about global economic growth. 39% of CEOs are very confident in their business prospects for 2014, surpassing the 37% confident in global economic growth. The following graphic compares the trending of these two metrics:
- Over-regulation (78%), availability of key skills (73%) and government response to fiscal deficit and debt burden (72%) are the top three threats CEOs are most concerned about. It’s interesting to note that five of the top then threats are technology-related. Availability of key skills, cyber threats including lack of data security, shift in consumer spending and behaviors, speed of technology change, and new market entrants are five threat areas that are being addressed by scalable, secure enterprise technologies today.
- Mobile technologies for customer engagement is the most strategically important series of technology CEOs are focusing on today. The report states that “the number of mobile phone users globally was expected to total 4.55B in 2014 – nearly 70% of the world’s population – with smartphone users totaling 1.75B. The volume of mobile traffic generated by smartphones is now about twice that of PCs, tablets and routers – despite having only surpassed them in 2013 – and is predicted to grow ten-fold by 2019”. The following graphic compares the strategic importance of key technologies.
- The majority of CEOs think that digital technologies have created high value for their organizations. CEOs cited areas including data and data analytics, customer experience, digital trust and innovation capacity as key areas where digital technologies are delivering value. Operational efficiency (88%), data and data analytics (84%) and customer experience (77%) are the top three priorities that CEOs are concentrating today. The first graphic compares the level of value being gained from each digital investment area, and the second provides an expanded analysis of selected digital technologies’ value.
- 86% of CEOs realize they need to champion the use of digital technologies for their enterprises’ digital investments to succeed. Taking control and driving change management deep into their organizations by championing digital technologies is the most effective strategy for making digital investments pay off. The following graphic shows that CEOs realize how critical their roles are in overcoming resistance to the change that technologies bring into an organization. CEOs in 2015 will champion mobility, data and analysis to strengthen their organizations’ ability to compete in increasingly turbulent markets.
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