For this year's CxO Priorities Study, we conducted personal interviews with more than 1,000 board members worldwide from 33 countries and 15 industries – gaining valuable insights into their current strategic priorities, growth ambitions, in how they deal with geopolitical challenges, and more. You can find the detailed results in the study report available for download above. Here are some of our key findings:
For 90 percent of the participants, improvement of cost & profit structures is an important or very important factor to ensure mid- and long-term growth – making it the top priority for 2025, before digital transformation, cyber security and people-driven topics. However, when looking solely at the manufacturing industries, Innovation and R&D is the third highest priority.
A clear majority of manufacturing companies expect changing tariffs to have the greatest impact on their business performance. In contrast, only 30 percent of service companies consider tariffs to be the most influential factor. For service providers, changing interest rates are considered most relevant (59%), followed by changing inflation rates (54%) and the shortage of skilled labor (44%).
Although Germany remains the primary investment destination for German companies, it only received 37 percent of CAPEX, reflecting a strategic shift toward global investment hubs.
CxOs expect AI solutions to increase labor productivity by at least 10 percent throughout all business areas within the next three years. The highest increase is expected to be in IT & digitization (16 %).
A clear majority of companies remain committed to their net zero targets. For 67 percent of them, the timeline remains unchanged, while 15 percent intend to reach their target even earlier than planned in 2024.
