Over 2,500 chief executive respondents have a firmer grasp on how to navigate this new reality
Nearly half of chief executives in 100 countries reported a significantly more negative business outlook than on 1 March 2020, according to a new survey by YPO, the global leadership community of 28,000 chief executives.
While 49 percent have a negative outlook, more than one-third (37%) of respondents said their business outlook is slightly or significantly more positive in this new survey, YPO Global Pulse: The New CEO Frontier: Leading in the Post-COVID World. Both sentiments represent a notable improvement over previous YPO Survey data.
Conducted 21-24 September with 2,572 respondents, the survey offers insights into business leaders’ current economic outlook, business predictions a year out, and perspectives on the pandemic’s permanent impact on the workplace.
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Key additional findings include:
- Leaders are most optimistic about revenue growth in the next 12 months, but respondents were split with 39% anticipating a 10% or more increase in revenue while 35% anticipate a 10% or more decrease.
- Workforce outlooks are less variable. Most (45%) expect their total number of employees to be the same in a year, while 30% foresee their total number of employees to be down by 10% or more.
- Many (40%) leaders expect their total fixed investments to remain the same in the next year with the rest evenly split between a more than 10% increase or decrease.
- Flexible work arrangements for employees are here to stay. Over three-quarters (78%) of chief executives report they will continue to offer them in a post-COVID world.
- Chief executives believe business adjustments they made to digital/technology investments (51%), leaner operations including workforce reductions (46%) and increased agility (43%) as a result of the pandemic will have the biggest long-term benefits.
- Business travel is still uncertain. While most (47%) business leaders are comfortable now travelling to a local in-person event, comfort around global travel is highly mixed with 12% now ready while 27% are unsure when they will be ready.
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