Chief executives place greater value on trust


More than three quarters of chief executives are placing
greater importance on trust, values and culture in order to build a sustainable
future for their organisations, a new report has revealed.
The 2017 Global CEO Outlook, authored by professional
services company KPMG, found that chief executives from ten markets, including
the UK, US and China, believed reputational and brand risk is the third biggest
risk to their business, behind only operational and emerging technology risks.
Reputational risk, which did not even feature in the top ten
risks last year, is expected to have the second biggest impact on growth over
the next three years.
Cyber security, which was last year ranked as the biggest
risk, has slipped down to number five as two in five respondents say they feel
adequately prepared for a cyber event, up from only a quarter who held the same
view in 2016.
Three in five business leaders say building trust is among
stakeholders is a top three priority, and seven in ten see a correlation
between being an empathetic organisation and achieving higher earnings.
But just one in three respondents expect public trust in
business to improve in the next three years, while three in five believe that
becoming more socially responsible is incompatible with short-term performance
objectives.
The report, which surveyed more than 1,250 chief executives,
also found that many are concerned about the political landscape, with more
than half reporting that it currently has a greater impact on their
organisations than in recent years.
As a result, nearly a third of chief executives are
expecting to see more protectionist policies in their country in the next three
years, whilst 43 per cent are reassessing their global footprint in response to
the changing pace of globalisation.
Two thirds of chief executives, however, remain broadly
confident about the prospects for the global economy, though this is a decrease
of 15 percentage points from 2016.