This year, 4,410 CEOs from 105 countries and territories - including 87 CEOs from Türkiye - responded to PwC’s 26th Annual Global CEO Survey. Global CEOs face daunting near-term challenges, starting with the global economy, which nearly 75% believe will see declining growth during the year ahead. Forty percent of global CEOs think their organisation will no longer be economically viable in ten years’ time, if it continues on its current course.

Today’s tensions

The most critical challenge facing CEOs in the short term is the state of the global economy. It isn’t surprising that three out of every four CEOs believe that global economic growth will decelerate in the next 12 months.The results are no different for Turkish CEOs. While 15% of them believe economic growth will increase, 77% of them expect a slowdown in global economic growth.

The confidence of CEOs in the growth of their companies has decreased drastically. Generally, CEOs feel more confident about their three-year revenue increase potential.Turkish CEOs are generally hopeful about their companies' for 12-monthly growth potential (47%), but this percentage was much higher last year (72%) Although, in contrast to short term estimations, participants feel more confident in their growth potential for the next three years (63%).

CEOs in Türkiye

The race for the future

Global and Turkish CEO’s have common concerns: they believe that in the next 12 months the risks they will have to weather most will be inflation, macroeconomic volatility and geopolitical risk. Turkish CEOs' forecasts regarding the effects of inflation in the short term (74%) are higher than that of their counterparts around the world (40%).

CEOs have different opinions about the five-year mid-term outlook. For the mid-term, cyber threats and climate change join the expected important short-term risks. While globally CEOs are mostly concerned with macroeconomic volatility in the mid-term, Turkish CEOs prioritise geopolitical conflicts.

CEOs see multiple challenges to profitability in their industry

CEOs in Türkiye

Climate Change

CEOs from across the globe believe that in the next 12 months climate change risk will have more impact on their cost profiles and supply chains than on their physical assets. Turkish CEOs expect their cost profiles to be affected in a limited way (30%). Only 6% expect climate change to impact their physical assets significantly or on a large scale. 25% expect climate change to impact their supply chain significantly or on a large scale, while 34% expect a moderate impact. The survey suggests that CEOs who take the most action are those who believe they are most exposed to risks.

Threats

Geopolitical risk now ranks high on the agendas of CEOs. To minimise geopolitical risk, companies invest in supply chains, cybersecurity and empowering their assets in the market. The priority of Turkish CEOs who state they face geopolitical risk is either to find new markets or to develop strategies for complying with the current market (68%) As opposed to the opinions of CEOs from across the globe, cybersecurity and data privacy investments rank fourth for Turkish CEOs.

Conclusion

CEOs need to maintain a balance between current matters on their agendas and the future to overcome the challenges they are facing, starting with their own calendars. Both global CEOs and CEOs from Türkiye focus on current operational performance. However, if they had the chance to start over with an empty schedule, they say they would spend time transforming the company and its strategy to meet the demands of the future.

In case of transformation, CEOs focus mainly on technology and transformation-driven investments. 93% of CEOs in Türkiye plan to invest in process and system automation and 83% intend to invest in the cloud, artificial intelligence and other advanced technology applications. 75% say they will upskill employees in priority areas.