CEOs Planning Focused and Agile Growth Strategies for 2023

Previously, SBI shared results from CEO Growth Planning Survey taken in 1H23.  Last month, our team surveyed over 100 CEOs asking the same questions presented earlier in the year relative to growth planning for ‘23.  With looming economic headwinds and recent changes impacting markets, SBI Research sought to understand where CEOs currently stand as compared to earlier this year.  

FY2023 is trending even more conservatively than 2022, emphasizing Focused and Agile strategies over more forward-looking Innovative approaches.

In this week's chart, results in the first half of the year show all four categorized growth strategies as fairly evenly distributed.  An agile approach was slightly favored by a small margin.  In the past month, we have seen a shift to either a focused or agile approach, with CEOs all but completely abandoning an innovative growth strategy and opting for a more conservative approach. 

SBI’s perspective is that CEOs are intensifying their focus on ”sure bets” and “wait and see” approaches to growth. This will allow them to maneuver through uncertainty but might also reduce any significant forward momentum. It also risks signaling a lack of direction to investors and the broader organization.

For the latest insights from SBI Research and how to prepare for growth in 2023, click here.