Canada’s CEOs more optimistic than global peers: KPMG
- Details
- September 9, 2020
Click image to enlargeCanadian CEOs are more optimistic about the future than their global counterparts, finds KPMG's latest Global CEO Outlook.
The report says 12 per cent of Canadian CEOs are significantly or moderately less confident than in January, compared to 29 per cent globally. Further, 40 per cent remain as confident as they did pre-pandemic, versus 26 per cent of global CEOs.
Across the board, Canadian CEOs felt much or moderately more confident in the three-year growth prospects for their country (48 per cent vs. 45 per cent globally), their industry (56 per cent vs. 55 per cent globally), and their company (84 per cent vs. 67 per cent globally).
"The actions taken in Canada to flatten the COVID-19 curve and keep cases fairly subdued means that CEOs here feel more assured than their global peers that our national economy will not collapse, with only 12 per cent feeling the economy is in a worse position today than it was pre-COVID," says Stephanie Terrill, business unit leader, management consulting, KPMG in Canada.
"Canadian CEOs also feel more bullish about the prospects of their own firms and are accelerating their investments in digital technologies, reflecting the need to find new ways of working and problem solving going forward," she said.
Canadian CEOs said territorialism and climate risks top the list of business constraints, with emerging technologies, talent risk, and cyberattacks rounding out the top threats to growth.
Three quarters (76 per cent) of Canadian CEOs agree that investing in disruptive technologies, such as artificial intelligence and automation, is critical to achieve long-term sustainable growth—compared to 72 per cent globally—the vast majority (92 per cent) say COVID-19 has accelerated the digitization of their operations.