(upbeat music) Recently I asked a successful CEO
about the outlook for the next six months,
and I got a very honest answer.
Their response was,
"I'm not quite sure given the big forces at play."
In fact, I've never heard so many executives
voice uncertainty when they talk about their agenda.
The old playbooks are no longer sufficient
given the volatility, and leaders are asking themselves,
"What's different?"
(inspirational music)
One executive told us, "We want to use this opportunity
to leapfrog and create a new benchmark in our sector."
According to our research, 75% of companies
want to use this opportunity of uncertainty
to create growth opportunities.
Yet when we look at the historical data,
only 14% of companies manage to create both top-line growth
and margin growth in a downturn.
It's a real CEO dilemma, and it's down to
the resilience muscle in the organization.
The very best leaders, they manage the short-term risk.
They optimize their cost and cash positions
to generate investment headroom, and at the same time
they courageously go after top-line growth opportunities
and there's no trade off between the two.
Technology, including AI and data, is an important lens
to apply and it's much more than an enabler.
We need new leadership skills and we need
more diverse teams.
My advice to leaders: bring strategic clarity
to the entire organization, increased clock speed
in decision making, and finally, make sure you have
execution capacity in your organization.
This is a massive change journey.