McKinsey & Company releases six priorities for CEOs following annual survey

The past two years have changed the world. In order to pinpoint what’s on business leaders’ minds, McKinsey & Company spoke with hundreds of CEOs and, consequently, outlined their prime concerns.

The survey that was recently carried out by the global management consulting firm looked at what matters most to CEOs around the world in these turbulent times and came up with a list of six priorities.

1. Resilience

First, there was the pandemic, now there is the issue of inflation. Such struggles lead to the need for CEOs to ask themselves how resilient their companies are if they are to survive in the current global and economic climate.

2. Courage

While some CEOs tend to be tempted to pull the plug on certain projects or developments they’ve been planning to make due to the challenges they are facing, it is advisable not to do so if they want their companies to thrive. As one CEO said, “I don’t want to benchmark our performance to the industry—I want to reinvent the industry.”

3. Hatch new businesses

The third priority is to not stick to one business alone, but rather to venture into new areas, especially within the field of green technologies, which seems to be one of the top areas in which investments are being made globally. More than half of top executives interviewed in this survey consider business building a top-three priority.

4. Technology is the basis of growth

Throughout this year, several CEOs have spoken about the importance of investing in technology to ensure growth in the future. This has also been identified as a top priority for international CEOs if they want to claim a leading position for themselves and their companies.

5. Net-Zero emissions

The fifth identified priority is also one which has been identified by CEOs locally this past year. At COP26 held in November 2021, business leaders pledged to target nearly 90 per cent of CO₂ emissions for reduction. As a result of these commitments, the UN projects greenhouse gas emissions will be around five billion tonnes lower by 2030.

6. Rebuild the employee experience

As the world, Malta included, continues to face recruitment challenges, CEOs around the world have taken a look at how they can do things better in order to engage their workforce further, hence leading to higher levels of loyalty among their employees. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that, whenever possible, a hybrid working environment is advisable.

CEOs need to think hard about what they should and can do in order to face and overcome the challenges that the new year is going to bring with it.