Our colleagues in HLB International have just launched the HLB Survey of Business Leaders 2023: Leading through a perfect storm. This year’s report explores how businesses around the world are grappling with a series of ‘low probability, high impact’ events.
Leading through a perfect storm
Rising inflation, increased geopolitical risks and talent shortages all form part of the perfect storm facing business in 2023. In fact, we found that business leaders today grapple with eight major risks to business. They must maintain a dual focus on short-term priorities to survive, and longer-term priorities to thrive.
Key findings include:
- 82% see inflation as the top risk to business with 35% named talent acquisition as the primary weakness they need to address this year.
- Almost half (48%) of business leaders are focusing on operational efficiencies while at the same time investing to innovate and grow.
- Flexibility is seen as the top leadership behaviour in times of crisis, followed by integrity and accountability.
- 51% are rethinking their ESG responsibilities, but there is still a way to go for business leaders to embrace the opportunities of effective ESG.
52% plan to accelerate new technology adoption to improve workforce productivity. Respondents identified AI (50%), cloud (47%), and renewable energy technologies (40%) as the most important for businesses over the next 5 years.
Explore the full HLB Survey of Business Leaders 2023 campaign and download the full report here.