NEWS16 September 2014

CEOs prioritise customer interaction to stay relevant

US — While more than half of US business leaders ( 55%) feel more confident about the economy than they did a year ago, they are worried about their products and services remaining relevant, according to a KPMG study.

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To stay relevant, the leading priority of the 400 US CEOs surveyed is to promote and advance the brand, and create more interaction with customers.

The vast majority ( 90%) of CEOs in KPMG’s CEO study Setting the Course for Growth: CEO Perspectives are concerned about competitors taking business away. Almost three quarters ( 72%) said they are concerned about the relevance of their products/services three years from now and 59% about new entrants disrupting their business model.

Half of the respondents described their overall growth strategy as aggressive, and half as conservative. Seventy-two percent said the focus on growth is more important for their companies’ well-being than a focus on operational efficiencies. The top growth strategies are geographic expansion and organic growth.

Regulation is a significant issue for this group: it is also the second most critical challenge that CEOs expect to face over the next three years (after geographical expansion), according to the survey.