CEO’s Opinions in 2011

According to Business Spectator Accenture CEO Pulse, December 2010 issue, the following results are from research conducted by GA Research interviewing Chief Executive Officers in December 2010.

Business Sentiment

80% are optimistic about the prospects for their own organisation in the next 12 months; whereas only 66% are optimistic about the prospects for the Australian economy.

Global Growth

• China leads the global growth expectations followed by the rest of Asia, then Australia. However 51% say that the Australian economy will only just be growing while the other half are expecting it to be growing healthily.
• Growth expectations are slowest for Europe and the USA, with 58% expecting stagnant growth and 9% indicating they expect a contraction in Europe; whereas 47% expect growth to be stagnant next year for the US.

Key Economic Indicators

• 77% expect growth in the ASX 200
• 78% expect the RBA cash rate to be higher by December 2011
• 65% expect Australia'a inflation rate to be higher
• 73% expect the unemployment rate in Australia to stay the same or fall, whereas 27% expect it to be higher.
• 58% indicated a lower $A compared to the $US by December 2011.

Company Outlook

• More then half (53%) expect employment in their organisation to increase, 31% expect it to remain the same and 16% expect a decrease.
• 60% expect capital expenditure to increase, 16% expect a decrease and 31% expect it to stay the same.
• 69% expect profits to increase, 9% expect a decrease and 20% expect them to stay the same.
• 64% expect sales to increase, 24% expect them to stay the same and 11% expect a decrease.
• 56% expect operating expenditure to increase, 26% expect it to stay the same and 16% expect a decrease.

The Top Challenges for CEOs

• Sourcing and retaining staff
• Improving operational efficiencies
• Achieving top-line growth

The Top Challenges for Their Industry

• Labour and skill shortages, especially for technical staff.
• Competition from both domestic and international markets.
• Weak customer confidence, with spend reductions – poor demand leading to price deflation

Most Important Initiatives to Improve Productivity in Their Organisation

• Improving the efficiency of current systems through the implementation of new processes, enhanced IT systems and other technologies
• Focussing on employees, skills development and workplace culture.
• Finding quality people to increase efficiency.

Personal Success as a CEO

In judging their own success as a CEO in 2011, most of the CEOs surveyed said they would judge their success by whether or not they delivered on their strategic or business plan and meeting specific financial targets as well as non-financial targets related to staff and customers.

Innovation is Important

In another Accenture survey, 89% of executives agreed that innovation is as important as cost management for high performance. While many companies are investing more in innovation, only a few have a rigorous approach for managing the process. As a result, even innovative companies often fail to realise the benefits that their new ideas could produce