19th Annual Global CEO Survey
The world's elites were not only concerned at the World Economic Forum about how complex - i.e. "multi-polar" - the world could become. Some 1,400 CEOs, or managers, also expressed their concern about prevailing threats to the auditing firm PwC. The key results of the "19th Annual Global CEO Survey" have just been published.
Areas of the economic world have also been easier to coordinate in the past. At least this is what the study published in time for the World Economic Forum in Davos (WEF) suggests. At the same time, the leading economic drivers declare serious changes in the market structure, a turning away from globalization to a so-called multi-polar world. In fact, entire economic sectors are breaking away from increasingly integrating economies and political unions as regional economic blocs, different legal systems, values and notions of freedom are renegotiated.
Globalization is "not dead," PwC concludes, but uncertainties and risks among business leaders have increased, allowing those extreme multi-polar developments and conservative mentalities to emerge.
Root Cause Management
From a political point of view, the study actually reveals nothing surprising. However, it becomes interesting when study results are included in individual observations. The new study underscores that managers do seem to recognize the increased uncertainties and dangers - but the central causes of current developments are not so easily managed. Some leading managers would even focus their businesses on typical problems, problems they have now been focusing on for many years.
But are there other responses to economic instability? In any case, PwC presents an interesting overview that maps the influence of the economy on politics. Using detailed statistics and charts, the study not least ensures that they managers do not get around two important parameters: Growth and stability.
The actual key results can be found at www.pwc.com/ceosurvey
