1,322 103 28 Leading in

18th Annual Global CEO Survey
Leading in
extraordinary times
The 2015 US CEO Survey, in CEOs’ words
1,322
CEOs interviewed in 77 countries
103
CEOs in the US
28
US CEO in-depth interviews
pwc.com/usceosurvey
2015 US CEO Survey
Overview
Leading in
extraordinary times
2
Welcome to the 18th Annual Global CEO Survey. In this report, we take a
close look at how US CEOs see the future shaping up for their businesses
in 2015 and beyond.
We’re living in extraordinary times. US CEOs are forging ahead in an
environment they believe is more volatile and unpredictable. Yet most
believe there are more opportunities today for their companies than
existed three years ago. What’s more, according to PwC’s 2015 US CEO
Survey, 46% of US CEOs are ‘very confident’ of achieving revenue
growth this year, a five-year Survey high.
PwC surveyed 1,322 business leaders across 77 countries between
September 25 and December 9 in 2014, including 103 CEOs based
in the US.
What’s changed?
For one, as the US recovery gains traction, it is gaining more adherents.
The world’s CEOs are looking to the US for business growth in 2015.
Leading in extraordinary times
Yet we believe there’s more fuelling CEO confidence than domestic economic growth. Great advances in technology and science are giving us
building blocks to solve problems. For business it means great opportunities to extract value in areas they have not gone into before by combining
the right building blocks together.
Initiatives US CEOs are planning for 2015 show how US businesses are
being positioned for this new era where growth in their important markets balance more evenly between developed and emerging economies,
and where mainstream adoption rates for digital technologies everywhere are surging.
US CEOs intend on making their company smarter
They are seeking to move their organization up the learning curve in distinct ways. This year, the interviews and responses reveal:
• CEOs are innovating and accelerating the impact of technology for their
customers. CEOs say they are seeing real payoffs from these investments.
They expect to take risks to operate within diverse and fluid networks.
• Yet as CEOs spiral up to better performance with a new set of technology
capabilities, tensions are surfacing inside the organization that are acute
and are not going to get better. Activist investors and competitors are
pressuring businesses to find new ways to extract value. Half of US CEOs
(50%) believe a significant competitor is emerging or could emerge from
the technology sector versus 32% of CEOs globally.
•M
uch within their own portfolios are under review—hard assets as well
as capabilities. Over half of US CEOs (54%) say they expect to complete
a domestic acquisition this year, up from 39% a year ago. This year, 23%
plan to divest a majority stake or exit a business, up from 15% a year ago.
• But it’s not all about buying (or selling) assets. US CEOs are widening
their use of alliances to secure new technology and speed up innovation.
They are significantly more willing than peers globally to consider partnering with competitors or customers. Traditional industry boundaries
are blurring, and CEOs expect cross-industry competition to accelerate.
Over a fifth (24%) says their business entered or considered entering the
tech sector within the past three years.
• Businesses are recruiting for a wider range of skills and looking for the
right fit in more places. They want to better reflect increasingly global
and dynamic customer sets of their organizations as well as meet growing
technology demands within their organizations. Over half (59%) expect
to expand headcount this year.
2015 US CEO Survey
4
Leading in extraordinary times
CEOs are asking themselves
‘what if’…
Wearable sensors become good enough to
transmit streams of highly accurate biometric
data? What if devices start to dominate the
volume of Internet conversations? What if
cash disappears? Or our cars are networked to
the surrounding infrastructure? Or hospitals
become so inviting that we’ll meet there for
lunch after our annual flu shot at the drugstore? What if we’re fitted for blue jeans by a
scanner on our mobiles?
Tomorrow’s CEO builds a company that is
genius-friendly, not just performer-friendly.
We would like to thank all of the CEOs who
participated in the survey, particularly the 28
US CEOs who took the time to share their perspectives with us in interviews. Their insights
greatly informed our survey. You can view
these US interviews as well as our full analysis
of the US CEO findings, at www.pwc.com/
usceosurvey. You can also find interviews and
perspectives from CEOs around the world at
These all are real scenarios that US companies www.pwc.com/gx/en/ceo-survey.
are working with now. Within the past five
years, each has moved closer to reality. And
they truly are scenarios, not just incremental
product or service enhancements.
The knock-on effects will have nth-degree
implications for their business models, distributors, and suppliers.
As the ‘what if’ scenarios take shape, so
does the opportunity. Connected devices
are smarter devices; connected customers and
employees are smarter; connected industries
are smarter. Businesses need to get smarter.
When asked what one attribute they think
CEOs should have to succeed in the future, we
heard this: Tomorrow’s CEO is a continuous
learner. A connected leader. A trusted partner.
An orchestrator of talents and capabilities.
Reasons for confidence in US economy in 2015 and downside risks
Tailwinds
Potential headwinds
Lower energy prices
Brent crude at an average of
$55 a barrel in 2015 could
boost US GDP by 0.9% for
the year.
Talent shortfalls stymie
34% of US CEOs are
‘extremely concerned’ over
availability of key skills versus
28% of CEOs globally.
Consumer activated
Declining unemployment rate
with signs of rising wages in
2014 lend crucial support, can
spread economic vigor to soft
spots like home sales.
46%
of US CEOs are very confident
of revenue growth in 2015, up from
36% at the same time last year.
What changed?
Manufacturing lights on
Output projected to outpace
GDP growth over next ten years.
Electronics, precision equipment
among fastest-growing sectors.
Base: 1,322 CEOs globally and 103 US CEOs (2015)
Sources: Oxford Economics analysis and projections; PwC, 2015 US CEO Survey, January 2015.
Competition heats up
Nearly half of CEOs in Asia
(48%) and 40% in Europe rank
the US market as a top-three
overseas market this year.
Global risks materialize
A Eurozone recession or a ‘hard
landing’ in China; strong dollar
offsets cheaper fuel prices. Such
scenarios could trim US growth in
2015 and beyond.
2015 US CEO Survey
6
The global economy is a little bit
confusing to those of us that are in a
cyclical capital goods business. The
positives point directly to the developed
markets. What’s hard for us to handicap
is what’s happening in the developing
market. Net-net, you’ve got to look for the
developed markets to be your growth, but
the developing markets are where the
action is going to be. You can’t walk away
from them, but you can’t put all your eggs
in that basket today.
— Ronald M. De Feo, Chairman and CEO, Terex
Corporation
I see the United States economy growing due to the natural gas
infrastructure. Commodity costs are very competitive. Electric
prices are competitive. We have a lot of natural resources in this
country, including the infrastructure to enable development. We
may be underplaying the potential that national resources play
here in the United States
Leading in extraordinary times
— John G. Russell, President and CEO, CMS Energy Corporation and
Consumers Energy Company
World’s CEOs look to the US for business growth in 2015
% CEOs globally ranking China or US a top overseas market
US
… and who ranks the US a top overseas market?
39%
38%
CEOs in Asia
Pacific
50%
40
34%
30
21%
20
10
China
CEOs in
Western Europe
0
2011
2011
2012
2013
CEOs in
Latin America
2014
2012
2013
2014
2015
2015
Q: Rank the three countries, excluding the country in which you are based, that you consider most important for your organization's overall growth prospects over
the next 12 months, ranked 1, 2 or 3.
Base: 1,322 CEOs globally in 2015; 1,331 in 2014; 1,330 in 2013; 1,258 in 2012; 1,201 in 2011.
Source: PwC, 2015 US CEO Survey, January 2015.
2015 US CEO Survey
For US CEOs, China still leads, but a shuffling of other markets
is evident in 2015
Top overseas markets for US CEOs, 2011 vs. 2015
2011
2015
Developed economies
Emerging economies
China 69%
India 31%
China 55%
Germany 30%
UK 29%
Leading in extraordinary times
8
Brazil 30%
Canada 16%
Q: Rank the three countries, excluding
the country in which you are based, that
you consider most important for your
organization’s overall growth prospects
over the next 12 month, ranked 1, 2 or 3.
Germany 16%
Mexico 16%
Canada 16%
Brazil 15%
Base: 103 US CEOs in 2015; 108 in
2011. Only economies for which at least
15% of US CEOs ranked as a top-three
market were included.
Mexico 16%
Japan 15%
Source: PwC, 2015 US CEO Survey,
January 2015.
We find in emerging markets that women are very entrepreneurial.
That’s the key for us. You have a demand for Western products, and
you have women, who may not have the greatest opportunities, willing
to take risks and who want to run their own business. That’s a match
made in heaven.
— David Holl, President and CEO, Mary Kay Inc.
Europe has been challenging. I can’t say that we
anticipated it to the degree that it’s happened, but
we certainly anticipated it to some degree. What we
did was to basically reengineer some of our
products, with the philosophy that Europe is going
to be a value proposition for a while. So in our
business, that means more in the focused-service
business, Hilton Garden Inn, Hampton by Hilton
and growing the Doubletree by Hilton brand.
We did a massive amount of customer research to
tightly engineer those products to meet the needs of
those customers, but in keeping with the DNA of
those brands. We deployed incremental resources
in terms of development of our commercial
platforms when many of our competitors were
pulling back.
— Christopher J. Nassetta, President and CEO, Hilton
Worldwide, Inc.
China is a very important player for global economic growth as
well as for our company. The automobile industry there is right
around 20 million units, the largest market on the planet, and
that will go to 30 million units by 2017 or 2018. Those ten million
units are very important for us, because the vast majority
of those vehicles will contain heavily Western-type content, with
technologies in safety, green, and connectivity.
— Rodney O’Neal, CEO and President, Delphi Automotive Systems LLC
The role of any Internet company is to protect its
customers and provide them the safest possible
experience and to be as transparent as possible around
privacy. Now, when you step back and look at the role of
a company versus the role of a government, clearly if
we’re going to provide the safest possible experience in
aggregate, government and companies need to work
together.
And I think we’re still in the early days of that being
done in effective ways. Some of the legal norms and
standards haven’t yet been developed as they are in the
physical world. They’ve not been developed in the
digital world, but that’s a direction I think where we
need to make progress.
— John Donahoe, President and CEO, eBay Inc.
Our business has always been very risky, but when we
think about the risks we have going forward, they’re
not more, they’re not less. They’re just different. The
risks we’ve dealt with historically are around capital
deployment, when to invest, how to invest and
capacity.
The risks we encounter going forward are, which
customers do we get really close to, and how
do we deploy our technology in ways that create value
add for the customers? It’s a different dynamic and a
different type of risk, but one that provides lots of
opportunity as well.
— D. Mark Durcan, CEO, Micron Technology, Inc.
Percentage of Global and US CEOs ‘extremely concerned’ in 2015
Global
US
43%
Over-regulation
Cyber threats including
lack of data security
57%
21
45
Government response to
fiscal deficit and debt burden
41
29
Increasing tax burden
31
Availability of key skills
37
28
Speed of technological change
21
New market entrants
17
Protectionist tendencies
of national governments
17
High or volatile energy costs
12
Shift in consumer spending
and behaviors
19
16
23
11
Inadequate basic infrastructure
22
10
Supply chain disruption
6
Bribery and corruption
6
0
11
12
34
26
14
Lack of trust in business
2015 US CEO Survey
In 2015, CEOs globally more concerned about energy volatility and
consumer shifts than US CEOs
19
16
20
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Q: How concerned you are, if at all, about the [given threats] to your organization?
Base: 103 (US CEOs); 1,322 (CEOs globally); showing responses by % ‘extremely concerned’.
Source: PwC, 2015 US CEO Survey, January 2015.
Tech-related threats rise as some policy risks recede for US CEOs in 2015
Percentage US CEOs ‘extremely concerned’ (2014 vs 2015)
2014
2015
Government response to
fiscal deficit and debt burden
41%
55%
52
Over-regulation
37
Increasing tax burden
31
Availability of key skills
22
Speed of technological
change
45
34
20
12
New market entrants
0
10%
49
26
17
20%
30%
40%
50%
Q: How concerned you are, if at all, about the [given threats] to your organization?
Base: 103 (2015); 162 (2014). US CEOs, showing responses by % ‘extremely concerned’.
Source: PwC, 2015 US CEO Survey, January 2015.
60%
Leading in extraordinary times
Cyber threats, including
lack of data security
57
2015 US CEO Survey
Extraordinary times: US CEOs see more opportunities
even in slow- growing, increasingly risky world
Compared to three years ago:
60%
see more
opportunities
12
see more
threats
67%
Q: To what extent do you agree or disagree ...There are more growth opportunities for my
company today than there were 3 years ago. Q: To what extent do you agree or disagree ...There
are more threats for my company today than there were 3 years ago.
Leading in extraordinary times
Base: 103 US CEOs.
Source: PwC, 2015 US CEO Survey, January 2015. © 2015 PwC. All rights reserved.
Technology is at the center of all the big changes in the world, and
there are plenty of competitors, but the industry’s expanding.
Nobody has an enormous lock on the market. The markets are
always changing, and it’s a great time to be listening, learning,
figuring out what problems are unsolved with customers, because
there are always emergent problems. And that’s how you win.
— Michael Dell, Chairman and CEO, Dell Inc.
If you think about the Ball brand home canning jar—
which is the jar in Jarden—that is a traditional
American product that years ago was about your
grandmother preserving food for the winter, and now
it’s about eco-friendliness, mom, sustainability,
organic, healthy living. So we’re taking a uniquely
American product that we’ve changed the marketing
on, created new products, and taking those around the
globe and leveraging our sister companies.
So that business is now in Australia, it’s heading into
the UK, it will soon be in France and in Brazil, and,
again, not because those are necessarily emerging
markets, but we have products that have been
underinvested into in the past.
— James E. Lillie, CEO, Jarden Corporation
We’re seeing a fragmentation of the consumer in more developed
markets. We’re seeing the consumer looking for different
alternatives. We’re in the food business, and there’s interest in
organic, gluten-free, low sodium, low fat, high flavor, indulgence.
It’s not just a small move to one thing or another, it’s
a diversification and fragmentation of where the consumer is,
and that’s opened up the opportunity for a lot of competitors, as
well as opportunities for us, to grow.
— Alan D. Wilson, Chairman, President, and CEO, McCormick & Company
2015 US CEO Survey
I am positive that at some point in
time we will be able to tailor a pair
of jeans to a body scan that you’ve
taken on your smartphone or on
your webcam and be able to turn
that around in a couple of weeks,
tailored for you, one unit at a time.
That’s amazing, and it will
completely change everything when
that capability comes along.
14
— Chip Bergh, President and CEO, Levi
Strauss & Company
Our understanding of this whole new science of genomics caused
great excitement around 2000. It was an immature science then,
and the techniques were not as powerful as people had thought
they might be, and the understanding of how to use them was
poorly developed. Now the techniques are more powerful. More
importantly, the understanding of how to use those techniques
and how they integrate with other technologies is tremendously
more powerful today than it was a few years ago.
Leading in extraordinary times
— George A. Scangos, Ph.D., CEO, Biogen Idec Inc.
Although we expect to beat anybody we can compete against, we
can’t compete against everybody, because we’re a chip company
and don’t necessarily know how to talk to people in other
industries. But opportunity by opportunity, we’re finding things
where we can do the job better than the downstream company, and
we will take that business.
— T.J. Rodgers, Founder, President, and CEO, Cypress
Semiconductor Corporation
The technology we are most
interested in right now is customerfacing technology. We have lots of
technology involved behind the walls
in running a hotel—point of sale,
property management systems, spa
management systems. They are
utilities in many respects.
— Arne M. Sorenson, President and CEO,
Marriott International, Inc.
2015 US CEO Survey
US CEOs see high value from digital technologies that deliver better,
safer customer experiences
% of CEOs who see very high value of digital technology in …
Customer
experience
16
Finding,
developing
and retaining
talent
Data and
data analytics
55
22
42
%
37
Innovation
capacity
Leading in extraordinary times
50
41
Operational
efficiency
Digital trust,
including
cybersecurity
Q: To what extent are digital
technologies creating value for
your organization in these areas?
Base: 103 US CEOs. Showing
‘very high value’ responses only.
Source: PwC, 2015 US CEO
Survey, January 2015.
We can see technology coming into every part of the customer
experience, in the store, driving efficiency in our delivery system, and
there’s many ways how we can access the customer for marketing
purposes. We just continue to find more and new and interesting areas
that we can apply technology to, and it all has a terrific return on
investment
— J. Patrick Doyle, President and CEO, Domino’s Pizza, Inc.
There’s no doubt in my mind that this
mobile digital experience has
increasingly become a preference.
We already see in mobile and digital
channels twice the level of
transactions that we see in our
thousand branches. Just five years
ago, that would have been a glimmer
versus the predominant way people
want to do business with you. It is an
accelerating trend, this shifting view
of convenience and relationship.
We’re going to all have to be very
mindful, nimble, as well as proactive
to meet this evolving landscape.
— Beth E. Mooney, Chairman and
CEO, KeyCorp
2015 US CEO Survey
US CEOs plan on being active, if not the most active, dealmakers
In 2015, CEOs plan to …
US
2014
2015
51%
42%
39%
29%
23%
28%
27%
23%
21%
15%
Complete a domestic
M&A
18
2014
54%
39%
Complete a crossborder M&A
44%
44%
13% 13%
Sell majority interest in a
business or exit a
significant market
Enter into a new
strategic alliance
or joint venture
Q: Which of the following restructuring activities do you plan to initiate in the coming 12 months?
Base: 1,322 CEOs globally and 103 US CEOs (2015); 1,344 CEOs globally and 162 US CEOs (2014).
Source: PwC, 2015 US CEO Survey, January 2015.
Leading in extraordinary times
Global
2015
ITT is looking to grow not only organically but also through M&A.
We have great platforms, and want to invest and grow those
platforms organically. At the same time, when you think about
entering new geographical regions or about new technology you
want to acquire, many times the best way to do that is by acquiring
that expertise, because you can do it quicker and meet your
customers’ expectations. Our strategy is to both invest organically
and through acquisitions to get a stronger portfolio.
— Denise Ramos, CEO and President, ITT Corporation
The healthcare industry is going through a lot of
change right now. It’s still a very strong growth
opportunity. The merger of Baylor Scott & White
Health was really a response to asking, “How do
we prepare for the future and continue to meet
the needs of our communities, and how can we
best do that in a rapidly changing environment?”
We’re going to continue to see consolidation in
the healthcare arena. It will be consolidations of
hospitals, health systems, and also consolidation
of managed care companies. You’ll see
consolidations of physician groups.
— Joel Allison, CEO, Baylor Scott & White Health
Inaction is the biggest risk for us. If we did not act, we’d be
vulnerable to activists. We’d be vulnerable to other companies
that see our strong assets, strong channels, and our technology
would become outdated. So not moving is more risky than
moving. We will make more acquisitions, but they’ll probably be
larger in nature, more transformative. That’s a big part of what
we’re trying to accomplish.
—Alex A. Molinaroli, Chairman, President, and CEO, Johnson Controls, Inc.
2015 US CEO Survey
A company can’t ever think that whatever
business it’s in today is going to keep them
whole for the future. Somehow people have
decided that big companies are safe and
stable, and I would say the facts over the last
50 years suggest the opposite; if companies
aren’t rapidly changing on a continuing
basis, their risk is increasing, not
decreasing.
20
— Douglas M. Baker, Jr., Chairman and CEO,
Ecolab, Inc.
Most of our business is what I’d call customer semicustom design. So you need to be there early. If you’re
not in with a major automaker three, four or five
years in advance of when they expect to have the car
on the road, the chances are you’re not going to get
designed in.
Leading in extraordinary times
— Thomas J. Lynch, Chairman and CEO, TE Connectivity
US CEOs want innovation as much as new markets and customers
from future alliances
46%
51%
Access to new/emerging
technologies
Access to new
geographic markets
45%
Access to new
customers
New
drivers
30%
Traditional
drivers
Access to
talent
49%
Ability to strengthen
our innovation
capabilities
17%
Access to new industries
26%
Ability to strengthen
brand or reputation
22%
Sharing of risks
Q: Rank your top three reasons for collaborating in joint ventures, strategic alliances or informal collaborations.
Base: 103 US CEOs, percentage ranking 1, 2 or 3 reason.
Source: PwC, 2015 US CEO Survey, January 2015.
2015 US CEO Survey
Partnering is more important than ever today, and the
technological environment lends itself to that. It’s essential. It’s
not historically something we’ve done tremendously well in
telecom. We’ve wanted to do our own thing, but as we look at our
customers’ needs, it’s an expertise that’s going to be very
important. We’re going to have to get better at it.
22
— Jeff Gardner, former President and CEO, Windstream Corporation
Collaboration is becoming much more standard in
terms of how you build partnerships between thirdparty providers and companies. But it’s also
becoming more complex as data security,
cybersecurity, is more important. Some of the
threats in the marketplace around cybersecurity,
some of those partnerships with outside providers
have created a point of penetration. With that, it
brings complexity in the sense that you have to make
sure that your third-party provider is approaching
security at as great or a better level of protection
than you are, and so that has made it easier and
complex at the same time.
Leading in extraordinary times
— D. Bryan Jordan, Chairman, President, and CEO, First
Horizon National Corporation
For a view from CEOs outside the US, find PwC’s video interviews
at www.pwc.com/gx/en/ceo-survey. Interviews include:
Andrew Mackenzie, BHP, Australia
Victor Kislyi, Wargaming Public Company Limited, Cyprus
Dr. Vishal Sikka, Infosys, India
Annika Falkengren, SEB, Sweden
2015 US CEO Survey
Future alliances will increasingly be with rivals, firms
in different industries, and start-ups
Future alliances
Current alliances
Customers
Suppliers
Business networks
24
Academia
Start-ups
Firms from other industries
Competitors
Government
NGOs
%
0
10
20
30
40
50
Leading in extraordinary times
Q: Are you currently engaged with or considering engaging with, any of following types of
partners through joint ventures, strategic alliances or informal collaborations?
Base: 103 US CEOs, showing ‘yes’ responses as current alliances and ‘considering’ responses
as future alliances only.
Source: PwC, 2015 US CEO Survey, January 2015.
On one side, you have massive social problems that are still not solved,
like Alzheimer’s, mental health disorders, oncology, and on the
other side, you have science moving at a breathtaking pace. The
combination of these medical needs and the pace of change in science
create a host of opportunities like we have never seen in healthcare.
In order to capitalize on that, we have created innovation centers. They
are emerging in places where you have the combination of research
institutions, strong universities, and academic hospitals,
entrepreneurial bases thriving and giving us the opportunity to
partner and collaborate.
— Joaquin Duato, Worldwide Chairman, Pharmaceuticals,
There is a general trend towards
partnering and strategic alliances
being more important in the industry.
I think what’s driving that, at least in
our space, are a couple of things.
Governments tend to be larger, the
programs are larger, and
unfortunately they don’t have an
overflow or an excess capacity to deal
with these programs, so they need
additional help. And the programs are
more complex. Given there’s more
people in these programs, technology
plays an increasing role. It’s very
difficult for one vendor to bring all of
those resources to the table,
so that vendor has to work with other
vendors to offer the most efficient,
optimal solution.
— Richard A. Montoni, CEO,
MAXIMUS, Inc.
2015 US CEO Survey
The most significant challenge you face when
you’re partnering with somebody else is that
you no longer control your destiny. When you
build all of your content yourself or develop
your technology, it costs you more, but you
have control of the scope. Whether you decide
to spend the money or not, you know what
you want to build. When you partner with
somebody else, you have to compromise, so
you have to figure out what’s a compromise
between you and the other partner.
24
— Nate Davis, Chairman and CEO, K12 Inc.
There are really two elements that are critical to creating a strong
leadership team in healthcare today. One is balance between
outside people and internal people and then also being open to
bringing disruptive leadership. And we did that a few years ago
when we hired an executive from the Ritz-Carlton chain to run our
new hospital. He had never worked in healthcare. People thought
I had lost my mind, but I will tell you that without his vision for
what that hospital could be, we never would have advanced as far
as we have, particularly in health and wellness, in creating an
environment that really brings the community in, and we teach
and support people in managing their own health. That never
would have happened with our traditional thinking, including
my own.
Leading in extraordinary times
— Nancy M. Schlichting, CEO, Henry Ford Health System
We have had a significant technical center in Shanghai, and
essentially we’d outgrown it twice already. We were looking for
something rather larger, where we could bring every part of
TRW’s technological base together into not just the building, but
also all of the testing and capabilities that we would have there.
We made a major investment by acquiring the land, building the
building, fitting it out, providing a huge array of futuristic test
development capabilities for engineering cars in China, done by
people in China, rather than developing that core engineering
from outside and then doing basic applications in China. It is a
major commitment for us in terms of both people and money.
— John C. Plant, Chairman, President, and CEO, TRW Automotive
% Strongly agree
We always use multiple
channels to find talent,
including online platforms
and social networks
We look for a much
broader range of skills
when hiring than we did in
the past
2015 US CEO Survey
US businesses are casting wider nets for skills to support bigger bets
% Agree
55
92%
56
80%
37
24
We actively search for talent
in different geographies,
industries and/or
demographic segments
We always equip employees
with new skills through
continuous learning or
mobility programs
61
85% 24
18
59
77%
27
Q: To what extent do you agree or disagree with the following statements about your organization’s talent activities?
Base: 103 US CEOs, showing ‘agree’ and ‘strongly agree’ responses only.
Source: PwC, 2015 US CEO Survey, January 2015.
Leading in extraordinary times
2015 US CEO Survey
About the 2015 US CEO Survey
PwC conducted 103 interviews with US-based CEOs as a part of the 18th
Annual PwC Global CEO Survey. In all, PwC conducted 1,322 interviews
with business leaders across 77 countries between September 25 and
December 9 in 2014, selecting the sample based on the percentage of the
total GDP of countries included in the survey to ensure CEOs’ views are
fairly represented across all major countries and regions of the world.
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The interviews were spread across a range of industries. All interviews
were conducted in confidence and on an unattributable basis.
To better appreciate the CEOs’ perspective, PwC also conducted in-depth
interviews with CEOs from six continents over the fourth quarter of 2014,
including 28 in the US. Their interviews are quoted in this report, and more
extensive extracts can be found on our website at http://www.pwc.com/
usceosurvey. Explore global responses by sector and location at http://
www.pwc.com/ceosurvey.
Leading in extraordinary times
Note: Not all figures add up to 100% due to rounding of percentages and to
the exclusion of ‘neither/nor’ and ‘don’t know’ responses.
For further information on the survey content, please contact:
Cristina Ampil, US Thought Leadership
646 471 5003
[email protected]
For media related enquiries, please contact:
Caroline Nolan
202 312 7510
[email protected]
To have a discussion about the 2015 US CEO Survey
findings, please contact:
Bob Moritz
US Chairman and Senior Partner
646 471 8486
[email protected]
Rob Gittings
US Vice Chairman, Client Service
646 471 7586
[email protected]
John Sviokla
Head of Global Thought Leadership
617 530 5359
[email protected]
Leading in extraordinary times
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2015 US CEO Survey
2015 US CEO Survey
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Leading in extraordinary times
www.pwc.com/ceosurvey
© 2015 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, a Delaware limited liability partnership. All rights reserved. PwC refers to the US member
firm, and may sometimes refer to the PwC network. Each member firm is a separate legal entity. Please see www.pwc.com/structure for further details. This content is for general information purposes only, and should not be used as a substitute for consultation
with professional advisors.
PwC US helps organizations and individuals create the value they’re looking for. We’re a member of the PwC network of firms, which
has firms in 157 countries with more than 195,000 people. We’re committed to delivering quality in assurance, tax and advisory services. Find out more and tell us what matters to you by visiting us at www.pwc.com/us.