Leadership perspectives
Welcome to our eighth annual KPMG CEO Outlook.
Our annual CEO Outlook has taken the business pulse of CEOs for the past 8 years. It provides a unique insight into the mindset and strategies of CEOs in Northern Ireland and how they compare with their peers worldwide.
Measuring CEO confidence and expectations about both the economy and their own organisations provides a valuable understanding of business sentiment at home and abroad.
Measured optimism
We’re struck by the measured but persistent optimism of Northern Ireland’s business leaders in the face of often significant challenges. It demonstrates their resilience and that of the businesses they lead.
Our research also considers the far reaching business and ethical implications of AI and, as ESG evolves to include greater regulation, how CEOs see the impact and benefit of ESG in their organisations.
Our report reflects on how CEOs envisage the future of work. In the face of rapid technological developments and intense competition, the importance of talented, committed people remains a constant feature of our research and indeed reflects our own purpose and priorities at KPMG.
We’d like to thank all of the CEOs in Northern Ireland and around the world who took the time to share their points of view with us.
It is both a challenging and exciting time to be in business. We hope you find our insights a valuable resource in helping inform your own decision making and leadership perspectives.
At a glance
Economy
NI CEOs still optimistic on economy but less so than global peers
The NI economy
NI CEO confidence in local economy down year on year albeit from a high base in 2022
Global outlook
NI CEOs (60 percent) are less optimistic about world economy than global peers (73 percent).
Headcount
67 percent of NI CEOs expect to increase headcount in next 3 years compared with 81 percent worldwide.
Complexity
NI CEOs report an increased level of complexity fuelled by geopolitics and technology.
Geopolitics
80 percent of NI CEOs believe geopolitics will negatively impact their businesses prosperity.
Threats
NI CEOs say the number one threat to their business growth is new/disruptive technology.
Cyber crime
67 percent of NI CEOs say cyber-crime is a threat to company prosperity and 90 percent are ready for a cyber-attack.
Technology
Emerging tech is becoming a top operational priority to achieve growth.
Fraud detection
NI CEOs (30%) consider fraud detection and cyber response as the top AI related benefit for their business
AI
Generative AI is a top investment for business say 47 percent of NI CEOs vis a vis global average of 70 percent.
Payback time
NI CEOs (53 percent) say returns on AI will take more than 5 years while 43 percent say it will take 3- 5 years.
Talent
CEOs everywhere continue to prioritise talent.
People vs machine
Two-thirds (66 percent) of NI CEOs favour an emphasis on new tech investment with a third (33 percent) favouring skills investment.
Diversity matters
67 percent of NI CEOs say the greatest barrier to progress on diversity is implementing change at senior leadership level.
Added scrutiny
Seven in ten (70 percent) of NI CEOs believe that scrutiny of their diversity performance will continue to increase.
ESG
ESG is here to stay despite new and emerging issues and threats.
In-house capacity
Only 43 per cent of NI CEOs say they have the capability and capacity to meet applicable ESG reporting standards.
Value creation
NI CEOs take ESG seriously with over half (53 percent) seeing ESG as a means to value creation.
Attracting talent
33 percent of NI CEOs see the biggest impact of ESG is in attracting the next generation of talent v’s only 14 percent globally
Queries? Get in touch
If you have any questions about our CEO Outlook report, its themes or their impact for your business, please contact Seamus Hand or Johnny Hanna.
We'd be delighted to hear from you.
Seamus Hand
Managing Partner
KPMG in Ireland
Johnny Hanna
Partner-in-charge
KPMG in Northern Ireland
Methodology
About the KPMG 2023 CEO Outlook
This edition of the KPMG CEO Outlook, was conducted with 1,325 CEOs between 15 August and 15 September 2023, provides unique insight into the mindset, strategies and planning tactics of CEOs.
All respondents have annual revenues over US$500M and one-third of the companies surveyed have more than US$10B in annual revenue. The survey included leaders from 13 markets (Australia, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Northern Ireland, Spain, and US) and 11 key industry sectors (asset management, automotive, banking, consumer and retail, energy, infrastructure, insurance, life sciences, manufacturing, technology, and telecommunications).
NOTE: Some figures may not add up to 100 percent due to rounding.