Disrupt and Grow Is Highlight of Kpmg’s First Saudi Arabia Chief Executives Outlook Survey

KPMG in Saudi Arabia has issued the results of its first KPMG Saudi Arabia CEO Outlook Survey, which offers insights into the opportunities and challenges faced by chief executives in the Kingdom.

The report highlights the strategic priorities of CEOs as they run their organizations through a period of uncertainty and opportunity. The report also offers rich insights into how CEOs are responding to challenges and benefiting from opportunities by equipping their organizations to meet these challenges and also by upskilling themselves.

 “The First KPMG’s 2017 Saudi Arabia CEO Outlook delves into how today’s CEOs are facing a need to transform their existing business models,” commented Abdullah H. Alfozan, Chairman of KPMG MESA and KPMG in Saudi Arabia. “CEOs are concerned that their organizations are not disrupting business models in the industry. Yet, 83 percent of the chief executives are optimistic about transforming their company over the next three years”.

He went on to say, “In today’s world, CEOs are aiming to ‘disrupt and grow’ and are also taking steps for their organizations to be disruptors in their respective sectors, instead of being disrupted by competitors. In addition, 95 percent of the chief executives view technological disruption as a major opportunity and are planning to invest in emerging technologies, such as blockchain, IoT and data analytics over the next three years.”

According to the report, CEOs are now responding to the increased uncertainty from geopolitical pressures by fostering innovation, adopting emerging technologies, following a customer-centric approach and transforming business models.

There is a general tendency among CEOs to transform the business models of their organizations. About two thirds of CEOs in the Kingdom - 60 percent to be exact – acknowledge that the current global geopolitical uncertainty influences them more greatly than ever before. As a result, 58 percent of them resorted to re-evaluating their presence outside of their core markets. 95 percent of them are hiring highly skilled manpower to obtain a deeper understanding of geopolitical threats, and 83 percent of them are spending more time making plans and studying possible scenarios.

“With the fall in global oil prices, the economy of the country has been facing headwinds,” Alfozan stresses, “the CEOs are however optimistic, following the launch of various programs by the government including ‘The National Transformation Program 2020’ and ‘The Saudi Vision 2030’ — to diversify the economy away from oil. Hence, 98 percent of the CEOs see that growth in the Saudi economy in general, and that of their corporations in particular, is on the up and up, especially given that 83 percent of those CEOs anticipate that the confidence of the Saudi society in their businesses is the reason why they will maintain their growth over the next three years.”

Arvind Singhi, Head of Markets at KPMG in Saudi Arabia, stressed that accelerating market shifts today compel CEOs to adopt new business models and methods to cope with the rapidly varying requirements of the market.

He points out that 73 percent of CEOs worry that their organizations may not be able to upgrade and update the business models that have been standard in their respective industries, even though they fully recognize the importance of transforming these business models to become more nimble in a fast-changing environment.

Singhi, however, reiterated that according to the survey, 60 percent of CEOs are optimistic about the transformation of their companies over the next three years.

“In contrast, 74 percent of their global counterparts believe that nothing will change, and as many as 63 percent of them believe that an innovation-oriented, customer-centric business model will truly help their businesses grow and prosper.”

2017 Saudi Arabia CEO Outlook

The 2017 Saudi Arabia CEO Outlook Survey is the most diversified CEO Survey covering 11 industries and businesses from the public and private sectors in the kingdom. The study is part of the world’s largest CEO Survey by KPMG International. On the global level, between February 21st and April 11th, the survey, probed 1,261 CEOs from Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States.