Top priorities of top CEOs

What moves are they making for success in 2023?

Woe betides any leader who thinks the pandemic is over and business as usual is returning. We will never return to pre-COVID life. Everything has changed. So, about what are CEOs thinking? We preview a collection of articles by McKinsey and Co that comes from speaking with hundreds of CEOs worldwide and identifies these six priorities.

1. Resilience: fall back, spring ahead
   The new catchword: “resilience.” McKinsey notes this is “emerging as a vital ‘muscle’ for . . . operating in a world of endless volatility and disruption.” Organisations now need to take the lessons they learnt about pivoting and the speed of change and apply them to all areas of operation.
   
2. Take courage
   A great quote from the collection is that “the best leaders and companies are ambidextrous: prudent about managing the downside while courageously pursuing the upside. These leaders are thinking about the next decade, not the next month.” Now is not the time to withdraw but rather to move forward with courage, just like one of the CEOs who remarked, “I don’t want to benchmark our performance to industry—I want to reinvent the industry.”
   
3. Hatch a new business
   Building on the theme of courage, most CEOs are planning on moving into new business opportunities as a matter of course. Building new business is in the top three list of priorities.
   
4. Technology: the foundation of growth
   The key here is not just evaluating new software and technologies but evaluating the opportunities presented to transform business.
   
5. Net zero: stay the course
   Acknowledging there are major issues worldwide—such as war, inflation and a potential global recession—business leaders still see coupling sustainability with economic competitiveness is not only possible but imperative.
   
6. Rebuild the employee experience
   Employees have returned to work post-COVID with a degree of caution and changed expectations. Engaging with them in new ways is important for CEOs, including the role the office now plays and how it is used and ensuing employees find meaning in their work.

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Photograph: Edmond Dantès, Pexels