Top areas of focus for the C-suite
Note: All data cited is from our PwC Pulse Survey, published in November 2022, unless otherwise noted. Between October 12 and October 18, 2022, PwC surveyed 657 US executives, including 91 CFOs and finance leaders, 94 CHROs and human capital leaders, 73 CMOs and marketing leaders, 89 tax leaders, 72 risk management leaders, including CROs, CAEs and CISOs, 82 COOs and operations leaders, 87 CIOs, CTOs and technology leaders and 69 corporate board directors.
From employees and customers to investors and regulators, stakeholders want proof that your business’ words and actions align. Top areas of focus include data protection, cybersecurity, employee treatment, ethical business practices and admitting mistakes. How you perform and communicate across all these areas — before and after something goes awry — can influence how well you recover.
Trust is an integral part of your organization’s DNA, but there’s a significant gap in trust between businesses and their customers and employees. PwC’s Consumer Intelligence Series on Trust revealed that while 87% of executives think customers highly trust their companies, only about 30% of customers say they do. Diverse stakeholder perspectives can make it harder to cultivate that confidence. The responsibility for nurturing trust is the responsibility of all senior executives, though many look to two executives to lead: CEOs and CFOs. If these two take the initiative to align senior leadership around customers’ and employees' priorities, they can help focus the entire organization on the most important trust initiatives.
Build trust and transparency
Executives ranked digital transformation among their top priorities at the start of 2022, and recessionary risks haven’t derailed them. Technology is still seen as the most effective and reliable way to drive growth, improve efficiency and enhance ESG initiatives, and a vast majority of CIOs are investing to digitally transform operations.
Despite the initial outlay, digitizing and modernizing outdated processes and equipment is one way to trim expenses. These initiatives have enterprise-wide influence. CIOs are steering the direction, but there’s a shared responsibility across finance, operations, HR, tax and risk. Proactively engaging finance and risk leaders, for instance, can help your organization reap the biggest potential benefits. Tax leaders can also help identify how research and development tax credits against US federal and state taxes can offset digital investments.
Accelerate transformation
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues influence the entire enterprise, from net zero and data security to board oversight and stakeholder trust. Internal and external stakeholders are demanding faster and measurable progress, even in areas where you may not have all the answers. Executives can work in concert to prioritize initiatives that will position the organization to lead.
Among CMOs and marketing leaders, 89% are refining how their companies tell their ESG story. With the SEC's proposed new rules for climate change disclosures, technology leaders will play a key role in implementing cloud-based solutions to manage sustainability data and advance on net zero and other commitments. CFOs are focused on consistent reporting metrics, and COOs are considering whether to update their operating models to include a view into potential ESG impacts. Perhaps the biggest opportunities are within the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Tax leaders can drive value by providing guidance on how to tap into the nearly $370 billion in climate and clean energy provisions as the IRS issues guidance.
Create value through ESG
Since the pandemic, workforce expectations have shifted dramatically for employers and employees alike. Business leaders face dueling challenges: headcount reductions and hiring in specific areas to drive growth. Employees want support in battling burnout and are demanding more flexibility, a healthier workplace culture and different ways of working — including remote work.
How do you make sure you have the right people with the right skills in the right positions? Many executives are struggling to create an inclusive environment for all employees, whether they work onsite or remotely. Thirty percent strongly agree that management favors onsite over remote workers for advancement and compensation. By centering the talent strategy around flexibility and personalization and making inclusive leadership a core capability, executives can proactively defuse tension and foster trust with their teams.
Navigate workforce disruption
A multicrisis world requires senior executives to take a wider view of risks. That means transforming how crisis management, risk management and resilience work together. Risk leaders will want to remain in sync with senior executives to unlock opportunities as challenges unfold.
It’s difficult to anticipate every possible scenario, and resilience testing strategies, recovery testing plans and scenario libraries are critical. Next to macroeconomic concerns, business leaders (52%) are on alert for more frequent or broader cyber attacks, for example. Taking a crisis-agnostic view and testing against multiple events and scenarios enables stakeholders to come to a shared, working knowledge of the company’s recovery capabilities.
Strengthen business resilience
Cost cutting has been a recurring theme for executives, but hunkering down as the economy contracts and scaling back spending could turn recessionary fears into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Executives are cautiously optimistic that targeted growth is still possible. It's important to identify savings that can be reallocated and combined with smart investments that will enable the company to emerge from a potential recession in a healthier position.
While there’s greater pressure to demonstrate return on investment (ROI), the vast majority of executives are confident they can achieve their short-term growth goals. For example, 74% of CFOs are changing capital spending strategies in response to the current economic environment, our latest Pulse Survey found. Collaboration across the C-suite will be key in right-sizing those decisions to navigate the downturn.
Enable growth through collaboration
Today’s executives face an unprecedented level of economic and geopolitical volatility. Despite concerns about the impact of these macroeconomic conditions on their businesses, many remain confident they can achieve their growth goals. It will take an agile, collaborative approach to do so, based not on traditional three-year plans, but as financial circumstances evolve over the next 12 to 18 months.
No matter where you sit in the C-suite, the unpredictability elevates the complexity. But the challenges of the past few years — from a global pandemic to geopolitical unrest — have helped prepare you for the future. Click through the growth drivers on the left for insights on what lies ahead and how executives can work together to take their company forward.
What’s important to the C-suite
Build trust and transparency
Accelerate transformation
Create value through ESG
Navigate workforce disruption
Strengthen business resilience
Enable growth through collaboration
What's important to the C-suite
Build trust and transparency
Accelerate transformation
Create value through ESG
Navigate workforce disruption
Strengthen business resilience
Enable growth through collaboration
What's important to the C-suite
Note: All data cited is from our PwC Pulse Survey, published in November 2022, unless otherwise noted. Between October 12 and October 18, 2022, PwC surveyed 657 US executives, including 91 CFOs and finance leaders, 94 CHROs and human capital leaders, 73 CMOs and marketing leaders, 89 tax leaders, 72 risk management leaders, including CROs, CAEs and CISOs, 82 COOs and operations leaders, 87 CIOs, CTOs and technology leaders and 69 corporate board directors.
Top areas of focus for the C-suite
Previous
From employees and customers to investors and regulators, stakeholders want proof that your business’ words and actions align. Top areas of focus include data protection, cybersecurity, employee treatment, ethical business practices and admitting mistakes. How you perform and communicate across all these areas — before and after something goes awry — can influence how well you recover.
Trust is an integral part of your organization’s DNA, but there’s a significant gap in trust between businesses and their customers and employees. PwC’s Consumer Intelligence Series on Trust revealed that while 87% of executives think customers highly trust their companies, only about 30% of customers say they do. Diverse stakeholder perspectives can make it harder to cultivate that confidence. The responsibility for nurturing trust is the responsibility of all senior executives, though many look to two executives to lead: CEOs and CFOs. If these two take the initiative to align senior leadership around customers’ and employees' priorities, they can help focus the entire organization on the most important trust initiatives.
Build trust and transparency
Next
Previous
Executives ranked digital transformation among their top priorities at the start of 2022, and recessionary risks haven’t derailed them. Technology is still seen as the most effective and reliable way to drive growth, improve efficiency and enhance ESG initiatives, and a vast majority of CIOs are investing to digitally transform operations.
Despite the initial outlay, digitizing and modernizing outdated processes and equipment is one way to trim expenses. These initiatives have enterprise-wide influence. CIOs are steering the direction, but there’s a shared responsibility across finance, operations, HR, tax and risk. Proactively engaging finance and risk leaders, for instance, can help your organization reap the biggest potential benefits. Tax leaders can also help identify how research and development tax credits against US federal and state taxes can offset digital investments.
Accelerate transformation
Next
Previous
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues influence the entire enterprise, from net zero and data security to board oversight and stakeholder trust. Internal and external stakeholders are demanding faster and measurable progress, even in areas where you may not have all the answers. Executives can work in concert to prioritize initiatives that will position the organization to lead.
Among CMOs and marketing leaders, 89% are refining how their companies tell their ESG story. With the SEC's proposed new rules for climate change disclosures, technology leaders will play a key role in implementing cloud-based solutions to manage sustainability data and advance on net zero and other commitments. CFOs are focused on consistent reporting metrics, and COOs are considering whether to update their operating models to include a view into potential ESG impacts. Perhaps the biggest opportunities are within the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022. Tax leaders can drive value by providing guidance on how to tap into the nearly $370 billion in climate and clean energy provisions as the IRS issues guidance.
Create value through ESG
Next
Previous
Since the pandemic, workforce expectations have shifted dramatically for employers and employees alike. Business leaders face dueling challenges: headcount reductions and hiring in specific areas to drive growth. Employees want support in battling burnout and are demanding more flexibility, a healthier workplace culture and different ways of working — including remote work.
How do you make sure you have the right people with the right skills in the right positions? Many executives are struggling to create an inclusive environment for all employees, whether they work onsite or remotely. Thirty percent strongly agree that management favors onsite over remote workers for advancement and compensation. By centering the talent strategy around flexibility and personalization and making inclusive leadership a core capability, executives can proactively defuse tension and foster trust with their teams.
Navigate workforce disruption
Next
Previous
A multicrisis world requires senior executives to take a wider view of risks. That means transforming how crisis management, risk management and resilience work together. Risk leaders will want to remain in sync with senior executives to unlock opportunities as challenges unfold.
It’s difficult to anticipate every possible scenario, and resilience testing strategies, recovery testing plans and scenario libraries are critical. Next to macroeconomic concerns, business leaders (52%) are on alert for more frequent or broader cyber attacks, for example. Taking a crisis-agnostic view and testing against multiple events and scenarios enables stakeholders to come to a shared, working knowledge of the company’s recovery capabilities.
Strengthen business resilience
Next
Previous
Cost cutting has been a recurring theme for executives, but hunkering down as the economy contracts and scaling back spending could turn recessionary fears into a self-fulfilling prophecy. Executives are cautiously optimistic that targeted growth is still possible. It's important to identify savings that can be reallocated and combined with smart investments that will enable the company to emerge from a potential recession in a healthier position.
While there’s greater pressure to demonstrate return on investment (ROI), the vast majority of executives are confident they can achieve their short-term growth goals. For example, 74% of CFOs are changing capital spending strategies in response to the current economic environment, our latest Pulse Survey found. Collaboration across the C-suite will be key in right-sizing those decisions to navigate the downturn.
Enable growth through collaboration
Next
Today’s executives face an unprecedented level of economic and geopolitical volatility. Despite concerns about the impact of these macroeconomic conditions on their businesses, many remain confident they can achieve their growth goals. It will take an agile, collaborative approach to do so, based not on traditional three-year plans, but as financial circumstances evolve over the next 12 to 18 months.
No matter where you sit in the C-suite, the unpredictability elevates the complexity. But the challenges of the past few years — from a global pandemic to geopolitical unrest — have helped prepare you for the future. Click through the growth drivers on the left for insights on what lies ahead and how executives can work together to take their company forward.
What’s important to the C-suite
Build trust and transparency
Accelerate transformation
Create value through ESG
Navigate workforce disruption
Strengthen business resilience
Enable growth through collaboration
What's important to the C-suite
COO
CISO
CIO
CFO
Explore executive insights
Explore executive insights
Next
Next
Previous
Next
Previous
Next
Previous
Next
Previous
Previous
Click below for deeper dives into the top opportunities for each executive
Explore executive insights
O
O
C
Chief Operating Officer
O
S
I
C
Chief Information Security Officer
O
I
C
Chief Information Officer
O
O
C
Chief Operating Officer
O
M
C
Chief Marketing Officer
O
S
I
C
Chief Information Security Officer
O
I
C
Chief Information Officer
O
F
C
Chief Financial Officer
Click below for deeper dives into the top opportunities for each executive
Explore executive insights
O
O
C
Chief Operating Officer
O
M
C
Chief Marketing Officer
O
S
I
C
Chief Information Security Officer
O
I
C
Chief Information Officer
O
F
C
Chief Financial Officer
Click below for deeper dives into the top opportunities for each executive
Explore executive insights
A
M
D
B
Board of Directors (M&A)
D
o
B
Board of Directors
x
a
T
Tax Leaders
O
D
C
Chief Data Officer
O
X
C
Chief Transformation Officer
O
R
C
Chief Risk Officer
O
E
C
Chief Executive Officer
O
M
C
Chief Marketing Officer
O
R
H
C
Chief Human Resources Officer
O
O
C
Chief Operating Officer
O
M
C
Chief Marketing Officer
O
S
I
C
Chief Information Security Officer
O
I
C
Chief Information Officer
O
F
C
Chief Financial Officer
Click below for deeper dives into the top opportunities for each executive
Explore executive insights
O
O
C
Chief Operating Officer
O
S
I
C
Chief Information Security Officer
O
T
C
Chief Transformation Officer
O
O
C
Chief Operating Officer
O
M
C
Chief Marketing Officer
O
S
I
C
Chief Information Security Officer
O
I
C
Chief Information Officer
O
F
C
Chief Financial Officer
Click below for deeper dives into the top opportunities for each executive
Explore executive insights
O
T
C
Chief Marketing Officer
O
M
C
Chief Marketing Officer
O
I
C
Chief Information Officer
O
O
C
Chief Operating Officer
O
S
I
C
Chief Information Security Officer
O
F
C
Chief Financial Officer
Click below for deeper dives into the top opportunities for each executive
Explore executive insights
O
T
C
Chief Marketing Officer
O
M
C
Chief Marketing Officer
O
I
C
Chief Information Officer
O
O
C
Chief Operating Officer
O
S
I
C
Chief Information Security Officer
O
F
C
Chief Financial Officer