WASHINGTON, Oct. 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Global executives are concerned about cybersecurity, geopolitical tensions, and a declining economic outlook. So finds a new study by A.T. Kearney’s Global Business Policy Council, Views from the C-Suite: Rising to the Challenge. This marks a notable shift from last year’s study, in which executives saw a strong macroeconomic environment. The authors argue that executives have since realized that unstable geopolitics cannot continue to coexist with strong economic growth.

This assessment was echoed by the CEOs that gathered for the Global Business Policy Council’s annual CEO Retreat this past weekend in New Orleans. Participants were particularly concerned about the impact of the US-China trade war and other protectionist actions on the global economy. Similarly, in this year’s Views from the C-Suite study, executives point to North America as the most challenging regional economy.

This is the second consecutive year in which geopolitical instability is the top external challenge identified by global executives. “Geopolitics casts a long shadow over the global business environment,” says Paul A. Laudicina, founder and chairman of A.T. Kearney’s Global Business Policy Council and co-author of the study. “Given the unpredictable nature of geopolitics, it is therefore unsurprising that executives believe that agility in strategy execution is a top operational opportunity.”

Another force that the global C-suite finds hard to address is technological change. Adopting new technologies is seen by executives as both a top challenge and a top opportunity. “Technology continues to be a double-edged sword for many companies,” argues Erik Peterson, managing director of the Global Business Policy Council and co-author of the study. “In particular, executives point to adopting artificial intelligence and big data/predictive analytics as both key opportunities and significant challenges in the year ahead.”

The emphasis that executives place on technology capabilities in their business operations puts greater urgency on addressing the top-ranked challenge for three years running: rising cybersecurity risks. “What we find worrying is that despite the strong awareness of cybersecurity risks, fewer than four in 10 companies have a cyber defense strategy in place,” says Courtney Rickert McCaffrey, manager of thought leadership for the Global Business Policy Council and co-author of the study. “The benefits of having a cyber plan are clear, as those companies are more likely to have resolved recent cyber breaches within one month—or have avoided such breaches altogether.”

The study includes a variety of other topics as well, including the global C-suite’s assessment that China will play a more dominant role in leading globalization initiatives, that the United Kingdom will have a “hard Brexit” from the EU, and that Global 500 companies will be increasingly vulnerable to targeted fake news campaigns.

Views from the C-Suite also reveals that more than two-thirds of executives believe they will be expected to take on a more significant role in societal issues in the coming year. The authors argue that this responsibility is at once an enormous opportunity for companies to reshape the capitalist system in a more inclusive way and a tremendous challenge for them to pursue broader societal objectives in a way that simultaneously improves their commercial success.

Read the full report here.

About A.T. Kearney

A.T. Kearney is a leading global management consulting firm with offices in more than 40 countries. Since 1926, we have been trusted advisors to the world’s foremost organizations. A.T. Kearney is a partner-owned firm, committed to helping clients achieve immediate impact and growing advantage on their most mission-critical issues.

To learn more about A.T. Kearney, please visit www.atkearney.com.

About the Global Business Policy Council

The Global Business Policy Council is a specialized foresight and strategic analysis unit within A.T. Kearney. Since its first CEO Retreat in 1992, the Council has been a strategic service for the world’s top executives, government officials, and business-minded thought leaders. Through exclusive global forums, public-facing thought leadership, and advisory services, the Council helps to decipher sweeping geopolitical, economic, social, and technological changes and their effects on the global business environment. The Council consistently ranks near the top of the University of Pennsylvania’s list of best private sector think tanks, and currently holds the 4th spot globally.

To learn more about the Global Business Policy Council, visit our Homepage.

Media contacts:
Erin Weiss erin.weiss@atkearney.com
+1 703-486-4737

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