Overtaking worries about Y2K and the Asian economic crisis, nearly 100 global executives said that competition, fluctuations in the global economy and workforce issues are the top concerns as they strive to keep their companies and brands buoyant.
Ketchum's Multi-National Corporate Issues Survey, "What Keeps the CEO Up at Night," queried 96 company executives in North and South America, Europe and Asia. Seventy percent were CEOs, CFOs, COOs, managing directors or partners.
Resoundingly, answers to a broad array of questions revealed CEOs focused on their employees, who once ranked far less important than stockholders, customers and the press.
But as executives increasingly make the link between quality services and products and the higher productivity of contented employees, workforce issues are gaining higher corporate priority.
In fact, when asked which factors will promote corporate growth in the next five years, "quality of your local workforce" tied with business changes and shifts in consumer needs (see list) for a 81.3 percentage.
Other factors which ranked as very or somewhat important to corporate growth were:
- Changes in how businesses in your industry compete nationally and globally - 81.3 percent;
- Shifts in consumer needs relating to your firm's products/services - 81.3 percent;
- The condition of your local economy - 71.9 percent;
- The condition of the U.S. economy - 71.9 percent;
- The condition of your national economy - 68.6 percent;
- Availability of capital for expansion - 64.6 percent;
- The impact of EEU on your business or markets - 61.5 percent;
- Variations in foreign trade policies - 41.7 percent;
- National/global environmental regulations - 40.6 percent;
- Fluctuations within the global economy - 39.6 percent;
- Impact of NAFTA on your business or markets - 37.5 percent;
- Fluctuations in the Asian markets - 30.2 percent; and
- Russia's market economy - 22.9 percent.
(Ketchum, 212/448-4411)
The Business Nod Off: CEOs' Top Concerns
There's no proof that most of the world's insomniacs are in upper management, but Ketchum's "Multi-National Corporate Issues Survey: What Keeps the CEO Up At Night?" raises the curtain on what concerns those heading major global companies.
More than 90 senior execs from corporations dotting the globe (North and South America, Europe and Asia) were asked to name the single most pressing issue likely to keep them up at night. Those issues are:
| Staying competitive/maintaining advantage/no complacency | 18.8% |
| Customer satisfaction/maintaining brand loyalty | 11.5% |
| Workforce/human resources/staffing | 11.5% |
| Fluctuations in the global economy | 10.4% |
| Cash flow/availability of capital | 10.4% |
| Irrational shape of regulation/deregulation | 9.4% |
| Increased/stronger competition | 6.3% |
| Political stability/instability | 4.2% |
| Disruption/crisis in Asian markets | 2.1% |
| Year 2000 (Y2K) | 2.1% |
"[Leading CEOs will be kept awake by] the Year 2000, increasing competition, the difficulties large companies experience when getting and keeping a workforce, and the difficulty of keeping up with the development of technology.
[I will be kept up by] learning how to communicate with the market in as easy a way as possible, and learning how to communicate an application instead of a product."
Unnamed Swedish exec who participated in the survey