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CEOs are preparing for reinvention
The app and platform economies that dominate now may soon be supplanted by business models powered by GenAI. It’s the latest change pushing CEOs to accelerate business transformation to be ready for a new age that’s dawning.
Reinvention through cost rationalization remains important. But for a leap forward, CEOs likely have to pursue mergers and spinoffs. For help formulating that business strategy, chief executives often rely on the board. But director skills aren’t always suited to today’s challenges and many CEOs are thinking about how to refresh the board.
In the spotlight
CEOs say their companies prioritize stability over risk-taking
The 2024 election signals a new landscape for business and policy — in line with the 74% of CEOs responding to our October 2024 Pulse Survey who said the outcome could significantly change how they do business. Key agenda items for a Republican administration include tax cuts, easing regulations and tariffs. These shifts highlight the importance of agility and risk-taking to driving profitable growth.
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{Just 38%} of CEOs say their company pursues ambitious goals and risk-taking to seize growth opportunities
Source: PwC Pulse Survey, October 2024
What to focus on in 2025
Strategy and growth
Apply productivity multipliers
The business pendulum is swinging back towards belt-tightening after years of expense growth. Protecting profit margins, however, can’t undercut the operational agility needed for business reinvention. CEOs and CFOs need to make wise decisions about what is a productivity- and a growth-enhancing expense. Flipping the cost-cutting script can help show executives which expenses to fully fund given their importance to the business’s reinvention and growth plans.
Additional ways to apply productivity multipliers
Strategy and growth
How focused investment can help drive growth
In an economic downturn, companies that are focused on deploying resources and think boldly on business growth strategy can outperform their peers.
Strategy and growth
Create a system to grow consistently
Learn how top performers are investing in a growth system by integrating capabilities and assets for short- and long-term success.
Resilience
The CEO’s recession playbook
CEOs should update their recession planning playbook now to prepare their company for transformational change in an economic downturn.
[68%] of US CEOs say in the next three years GenAI will significantly change how their company creates and delivers value
Transformation
Wanted: Exponential thinking
It’s rare that organic growth satisfies the return expectations of investors or the board. Transformative mergers are part and parcel of a CEO’s growth toolkit. But exceptional companies are also keenly aware of which assets to carve out that are no longer optimal as business models change. In PwC’s analysis, leaders who regularly scrutinize which businesses best suit their strategy may have a better chance of coming out on top.
Additional ways to enhance exponential thinking
Transformation
The next leap in value creation: How Game Changers are defining the future of business
Companies that will grow and create value are helping solve global crises, leveraging exponential technologies and adopting game changing business models.
Transformation
Transact to transform: PwC’s M&A Integration Survey
Companies are beginning to crack the code on how to make big, transformative deals successful. Our M&A Integration Survey outlines how they're doing it.
Value creation
From stagnation to innovation: Make business model reinvention real
A practical guide for reimagining how your company creates, delivers and captures value.
Emerging technology
The new Essential Eight technologies: What you need to know
Emerging tech like AI and VR drives business reinvention. Discover which are ready to scale, applicable to new use cases or primed for experimentation.
[82%] of CEOs say that an average competitor will be out of business within 10 years if it doesn’t change its current business model
Source: PwC Pulse Survey, June 2024
Technology
Retooling technology’s ROI
For all the leaps forward in computing, many companies struggle to fully realize their ROI expectations from technology spending. The ones who succeed at unlocking digital value know that it’s how they employ technology that makes the difference. They are outcomes-obsessed. And they view breakthroughs, such as generative AI, as tools that can deliver specific financial targets. Tech risks are ever-present, of course. That’s why CEOs work with CIOs to incorporate trust by design — building in risk management, audit and controls, and security from the beginning.
Additional ways to retool technology’s ROI
Technology
Measurable digital value transformation outcomes
Find out how to create measurable outcomes and value through digital transformation.
Generative AI
Guide to scaling generative AI for your business
Build a strategy with these guidelines for deploying and scaling generative AI in your business to transform operations, access data and provide insights.
Cyber and privacy transformation
Bridging the gaps to cyber resilience: The C-suite playbook
The demand for enhanced cybersecurity is intensifying — learn how leaders are addressing these issues and more.
[40%] of executives are planning a major reorganization of their operating model
Source: PwC Pulse Survey, June 2024
Board governance
Refreshing the board
Corporate governance takes on greater importance as business priorities change, the economy shifts and a CEO’s strategy evolves. Many CEOs want fresh faces in the boardroom. Six in 10 CEOs say one or more directors should be replaced in our latest board effectiveness survey. What they’re seeking are board members who can go beyond the traditional director role.
Additional ways to refresh the board
Board governance
Board effectiveness: A survey of the C-Suite
How effective is your board in its oversight role around key business risks?
Board governance
Why boards should evaluate individual director performance
Assessing a director’s performance helps identify skill gaps, improve dynamics and accelerate changes in board composition.
Board effectiveness
How effective is the board? It depends on who you ask
Comparing the results of two recent PwC surveys, we identify where directors and executives are misaligned.
[62%] of CEOs say one or more directors on their boards should be replaced, up from 39% in 2022
Sustainability
Sustainability’s strategic advantage
A wave of global regulations such as the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive are greatly expanding environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosures and compelling CEOs and the C-suite to ask: how well do we know our company? Beyond compliance, these extensive disclosures can pinpoint where productivity can be enhanced and new products created. Sustainability opens enormous opportunities: from the potential to win in emerging growth markets to attracting a new set of customers and employees who can help build a company that benefits all stakeholders.
Additional ways to leverage sustainability as a strategic advantage
Sustainability
From trade-offs to payoffs: CEOs on creating value with climate action
Our survey of 4,700 CEOs found that companies taking more action on climate-related opportunities and risks also have better financial performance.
Sustainability
The CEO’s sustainability checklist
Reinventing your business for a sustainable future starts with four mission-critical actions.
ESG reporting
ESG regulations and your company
Europe’s CSRD is one of the latest global disclosure regulations revolutionizing ESG reporting.
[64%] of executives see climate change as a moderate to serious business risk, up from 61% in June 2024
Source: PwC Pulse Survey, October 2024
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