PwC: Canadian CEOs are more confident

By Rob Starr, Content Manager, Big4.com

According to PwC’s 16th Annual Global CEO Survey released recently in Davos, Switzerland:

“Canada is a global leader when it comes to stability in our financial sector and Canadian CEOs are responding with greater confidence about their company’s prospects. At the same time, our CEOs are watching the economic environment south of the border carefully and paying close attention to the responses of governments in Canada and around the world to how they are managing their deficits and the debt burden,” says Bill McFarland, PwC Canada’s CEO.

Canadian CEOs also said that involving staff below board level in strategic decision making was effective in engaging their people and developing their pipeline of future leaders (88% vs. 79% globally). CEOs also stay active in succession planning, with 85% saying they are identifying multiple successors for their jobs.

Moreover, Canadian CEOs were less inclined to say global opportunities are an effective way to develop their leaders (66% compared to the global average of 83%). McFarland says, “This could be a risk, as the global economy changes rapidly and there is an increasing need for Canadian business to penetrate new markets, understand the global marketplace and be a significant player on the world stage.”

Another key theme in this year’s survey is that CEOs around the world are recognizing the need to rebuild trust amongst the public by having a stronger social mandate which starts within their own organizations and covers the relationship with all stakeholders.

For PwC’s 16th Annual Global CEO Survey, 1,330 interviews were conducted in 68 countries during the last quarter of 2012. By region, 449 interviews were conducted in Asia Pacific, 312 in Western Europe, 287 in North America, including 120 in Canada and 167 in the U.S., 165 in Latin America, 95 in Central & Eastern Europe, 50 in Africa and 32 in the Middle East.