What worried CEOs in 2018?

A PWC Global Survey revealed the problems worrying CEOs worldwide.

As many business models and industries have been reshaped, so have the worries and threats for CEOs across the world.

On the most recent survey conducted by PWC Global, CEOs show record levels of short-term optimism and heightened levels of anxiety regarding the business, social and economic threats confronting their organizations.

CEOs also highlight ‘potential ethical scandals’ as a threat. Source: PwC, 21st Annual Global CEO Survey.

As of today, CEOs across the world share worries on geopolitical uncertainty, terrorism and climate change.

Problems that were not present a decade ago seem to be dangerously palpable today.

In North America, cyber threats (53%), overregulation (50%), geopolitical uncertainty (44%), terrorism (43%), and speed of technological change (34%) are reported as extreme threats.

In Western Europe, populism (42%) is the chief ‘extreme concern’, followed by overregulation (35%), geopolitical uncertainty (34%), cyber threats (33%), and terrorism (32%) are major concerns.

For Asia-Pacific, availability of key skills (52%), speed of technological change (51%), terrorism (48%), cyber threats (44%), and over-regulation (42%) have been named their biggest worries.

A year of peaked optimism

Despite increasing worries, 2017 also saw the highest-ever jump of CEO optimism regarding global economic growth.

For the first time since 2012, when PwC first asked about the future of business growth prospects, most of the surveyed CEOs did not coincide about improvement, until now.

As global commodity prices seem to have stabilized and stock markets boom, CEOs seem to be optimistic and faithful about the business environment worldwide.

For its research, PwC conducted 1,293 interviews with CEOs in 85 countries.

Click here to see Eurasia Group‘s top risks for 2018.