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Liu Minxia
mllmx@msn.com
THE number of chief executives in China who are confident of their companies’ growth prospects this year is much smaller than that a year ago and, for the first time in years, smaller than the number of chief executives globally, the latest PwC survey showed.
The survey, the 18th of its kind by PwC, polled 1,322 CEOs based in 77 countries, and of these, 136 were from the Chinese mainland. It found that only 36 percent of chief executive officers (CEOs) in China were confident of their company’s growth prospects over the next 12 months, compared with 47 percent last year and 39 percent globally.
An economic rebalance in China as well as the impact of global disruptive trends are affecting their confidence in economic growth. Despite that, almost 71 percent say there are more growth opportunities for their company now than there were three years ago, and 57 percent are planning to hire more employees in the next 12 months.
Almost eight in 10 CEOs in China say rising competition and shifts in customer behavior are the most disruptive trends for their industry over the next five years, the survey found. “China’s unique demographic and technological changes have given rise to new consumer demands, increasing the need for organizations to differentiate themselves from rivals,” Albert Cheung, PwC China’s Shenzhen office lead partner, told reporters yesterday.
Many of China’s CEOs recognize the significance of digital technology on their businesses, but others are less clear about how to drive value from them. Only two-thirds (67 percent) say they have a clear vision of how technology can help gain a competitive advantage. This is a relatively lower percentage compared to that of the global average (86 percent) and the United States (92 percent).
In the face of intensifying competition and the “new normal” of slowing economic growth, China’s CEOs need to make it a priority to get a better understanding of precisely how they can leverage digital technology in their businesses, PwC said.
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