As technology’s tentacles increasingly affect every business, technology CEOs around the globe are notably more optimistic about growth prospects than CEOs from other industries.

According to PwC's 19th Annual Global CEO Survey​:  90% of tech CEOs expect to increase company sales this year, while 94% of tech respondents anticipate that revenues will rise in the next three years. Responses from the 167 global tech CEOs surveyed gave way to four overarching themes that can help explain the mindset behind the CEOs’ optimism.

Growth in complicated times

“Despite some discomfort about the global economy, tech CEOs are clearly bullish about their own growth prospects,” said Raman Chitkara, PwC Global Technology Industry Leader. “While historically sensitive to managing costs, the number of tech CEOs highlighting cost management as a top priority has come down—consistent with their increased confidence in future growth.”

Only 50% of tech CEOs are focused on cost reduction this year, compared with 60% in last year’s survey. Cost reduction is also a lower priority for tech CEOs than it is for CEOs across other industries, where 68% are focused on cost reduction.

Overall, tech CEOs’ optimism about growth opportunities outweighs their worry about threats, and they are significantly more optimistic about opportunities than CEOs in other industries (72% vs. 60%). But tech CEOs remain aware of major business threats. Topping the list of threats, 80% of respondents are concerned about the availability of key skills—up from just 58% in 2010. Cyber security was second on the list of concerns, followed by the threat of being unable to keep up with accelerating technological change.

Cyber security moved from sixth on tech CEOs’ list of top threats to second this year, and tech CEOs are notably more concerned about cyber security than CEOs from other industries (76% of tech respondents vs. 61% in other industries).

Addressing greater expectations

The majority of tech CEOs believe top talent prefers to work for organisations with social values that are aligned to their own, with 65% of tech CEOs saying that corporate responsibility is core to everything their businesses do. So, not surprisingly, 75% of tech CEOs are making changes to their values, ethics and codes of conduct. Eighty-three percent of tech CEOs say that in five years’ time, successful companies will be guided by a purpose centred on creating value for wider stakeholders. A full 95% of tech CEOs name customers and clients as the wider stakeholders with the highest impact on their organisations’ strategies.

Transforming: Technology, innovation and talent

Indeed, technology is transforming relationships with customers and other stakeholders. An impressive 92% of tech CEOs agree that technological advances will most likely transform wider stakeholder expectations of technology businesses over the next five years. As a result, 86% of tech CEOs are changing how they use technology to access and deliver on wider stakeholder expectations.

“Consistent with their focus in previous years, tech CEOs believe data and analytics, R&D and innovation, and customer relationship management systems will generate the greatest return in terms of engagement with wider stakeholders,” said Chitkara. “This is one area where tech CEOs and their counterparts from other industries are in alignment.”

Two-thirds (67%) of tech CEOs plan to hire this year, a 12% increase from last year and the highest number in the past six years. As a result, they’re increasingly concerned about finding the right talent, in part because more than three-quarters of tech CEOs (78%) believe a skilled, educated and adaptable workforce is the most important outcome for society today.

Deepak Kapoor, Chairman, PwC India

CEOs in India continue to be more confident about the growth prospects of their business than their global peers, according to PwC’s 18th Annual Global CEO Survey

CEOs in other growth markets, unlike those in India, are much less confident now as against last year’s survey, PwC’s data finds.

According to PwC’s 18th Annual Global CEO Survey (India report), 62% CEOs are very confident of their growth prospects in the short term (12 months) as compared to 49% last year. Further, 71% of CEOs are very confident of growth in the next three years.

CEOs in India see more opportunities than threats. The PwC data found that 84% of CEOs in India see more opportunities while only 41 % see more threats as against what they perceived three years ago.

CEOs increasingly becoming concerned about multiple potential threats. The focal point of concern for CEOs in India continues to be inadequate basic infrastructure. The global CEO is more concerned about over-regulation, increasing tax burden, geopolitical uncertainty and government response to fiscal deficit and debt burden. The only threat common to both global as well as CEOs in India is the unavailability of key skills.

Deepak Kapoor, Chairman, PwC India said, “While the world economy rebalances post-recession, we see demographics and technology reshaping the market. CEOs in India seem to be benefitting on both counts - developments within and outside the country. Our survey reflects this exuberance of CEOs about growth of their businesses as also of the economy.”

CEOs in India are less concerned about disruption. Fewer CEOs in India believe that trends such as changes in industry regulation, customer behaviour, competition, distribution channels or core technologies will disrupt their industry over the next five years. While CEOs in China and Africa seem most sensitive to the disruptive nature of these trends, CEOs in India are below the global average across all these parameters. According to PwC, this raises a pertinent question, whether this indicates a lower degree of preparedness among CEOs in India.

Over the last few years, business focus of corporations seems to be shifting to what customers want. In India, 50% of the CEOs surveyed think it is likely that companies will increasingly compete in new industries over the next three years. Thirty-eight percent have already entered a new industry, while 11% have considered doing it within the previous three years. Expectedly, technology stands out as the industry from which CEOs, across the board, expect significant competition.