# What’s important to the CEO in 2025: PwC

## CEOs are preparing for reinvention

The app and platform economies that dominate now may soon be supplanted by business models powered by GenAI. It’s the latest change pushing CEOs to accelerate business transformation to be ready for a new age that’s dawning.

Reinvention through cost rationalization remains important. But for a leap forward, CEOs likely have to pursue mergers and spinoffs. For help formulating that business strategy, chief executives often rely on the board. But director skills aren’t always suited to today’s challenges and many CEOs are thinking about how to refresh the board.

## AI: The need for speed

Business models powered by AI are rapidly inching closer to reality for a growing number of companies. AI capabilities are making an executive cockpit possible, meaning near real-time data on market activity or corporate metrics, and it’s detecting opportunities for improvement and threats requiring strategic countermeasures.

Our  emphasized that this change was dawning earlier than expected. , the need for speed is growing as the age of AI transforms how business is done.

### More insights

- **AI: The need for speed**
  - Business models powered by AI are rapidly inching closer to reality for a growing number of companies. AI capabilities are making an executive cockpit possible, meaning near real-time data on market activity or corporate metrics, and it’s detecting opportunities for improvement and threats requiring strategic countermeasures.
  - Our  emphasized that this change was dawning earlier than expected. , the need for speed is growing as the age of AI transforms how business is done.

### Additional ways to apply productivity multipliers

#### Strategy and growth

- **Apply productivity multipliers**
  - The business pendulum is swinging back towards belt-tightening after years of expense growth. Protecting profit margins, however, can’t undercut the operational agility needed for business reinvention. CEOs and CFOs need to make wise decisions about what is a productivity- and a growth-enhancing expense.
  -  can help show executives which expenses to fully fund given their importance to the business’s reinvention and growth plans.
  - **Additional ways to apply productivity multipliers**
    - **Strategy and growth**
      - 
      - In an economic downturn, companies that are focused on deploying resources and think boldly on business growth strategy can outperform their peers.
    - **Strategy and growth**
      - 
      - Learn how top performers are investing in a growth system by integrating capabilities and assets for short- and long-term success.
    - **Resilience**
      - 
      - CEOs should update their recession planning playbook now to prepare their company for transformational change in an economic downturn.

### Additional ways to refresh the board

#### Refreshing the board

- **Refresh the board**
  - Corporate governance takes on greater importance as business priorities change, the economy shifts, and a CEO’s strategy evolves. Many CEOs want fresh faces in the boardroom. Six in 10 CEOs say one or more directors should be replaced in our latest board effectiveness survey. What they’re seeking are board members who can go beyond the traditional director role.
  - 
  - How effective is your board in its oversight role around key business risks?
  - 
  - Assessing a director’s performance helps identify skill gaps, improve dynamics, and accelerate changes in board composition.
  - 
  - Comparing the results of two recent PwC surveys, we identify where directors and executives are misaligned.

## What to focus on in 2025

### Strategy and growth

- **Apply productivity multipliers**
  - The business pendulum is swinging back towards belt-tightening after years of expense growth. Protecting profit margins, however, can’t undercut the operational agility needed for business reinvention. CEOs and CFOs need to make wise decisions about what is a productivity- and a growth-enhancing expense.
  -  can help show executives which expenses to fully fund given their importance to the business’s reinvention and growth plans.
  - **Additional ways to apply productivity multipliers**
    - **Strategy and growth**
      - 
      - In an economic downturn, companies that are focused on deploying resources and think boldly on business growth strategy can outperform their peers.
    - **Strategy and growth**
      - 
      - Learn how top performers are investing in a growth system by integrating capabilities and assets for short- and long-term success.
    - **Resilience**
      - 
      - CEOs should update their recession planning playbook now to prepare their company for transformational change in an economic downturn.

### Transformation

- **Wanted: Exponential thinking**
  - It’s rare that organic growth satisfies the return expectations of investors or the board. Transformative mergers are part and parcel of a CEO’s growth toolkit. But exceptional companies are also keenly aware of which assets to carve out that are no longer optimal as business models change. In PwC’s analysis, leaders who regularly scrutinize which businesses best suit their strategy may have a .
  - **Additional ways to enhance exponential thinking**
    - **Transformation**
      - 
      - Companies that will grow and create value are helping solve global crises, leveraging exponential technologies and adopting game changing business models.
    - **Transformation**
      - 
      - Companies are beginning to crack the code on how to make big, transformative deals successful. Our M&A Integration Survey outlines how they're doing it.
    - **Value creation**
      - 
      - A practical guide for reimagining how your company creates, delivers, and captures value.
    - **Emerging technology**
      - 
      - Emerging tech like AI and VR drives business reinvention. Discover which are ready to scale, applicable to new use cases or primed for experimentation.

### Board governance

- **Refreshing the board**
  - Corporate governance takes on greater importance as business priorities change, the economy shifts, and a CEO’s strategy evolves. Many CEOs want fresh faces in the boardroom. Six in 10 CEOs say one or more directors should be replaced in our latest board effectiveness survey. What they’re seeking are board members who can go beyond the traditional director role.
  - 
  - How effective is your board in its oversight role around key business risks?
  - 
  - Assessing a director’s performance helps identify skill gaps, improve dynamics, and accelerate changes in board composition.
  - 
  - Comparing the results of two recent PwC surveys, we identify where directors and executives are misaligned.

### Sustainability

- **Sustainability’s strategic advantage**
  - A wave of global regulations such as the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive are greatly expanding environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosures and compelling CEOs and the C-suite to ask: how well do we know our company? Beyond compliance, these extensive disclosures can pinpoint where productivity can be enhanced and new products created. Sustainability opens enormous opportunities: from the potential to win in emerging growth markets to attracting a new set of customers and employees who can help build a company that benefits all stakeholders.
  - **Additional ways to leverage sustainability as a strategic advantage**
    - **Sustainability**
      - 
      - Our survey of 4,700 CEOs found that companies taking more action on climate-related opportunities and risks also have better financial performance.
    - **Sustainability**
      - 
      - Reinventing your business for a sustainable future starts with four mission-critical actions.
    - **Sustainability**
      - 
      - Your resource for sustainability insights on strategy, reporting, energy demand, capital projects, tax policy, climate risk, regulatory updates, and technology.
    - **ESG reporting**
      - 
      - Europe’s CSRD is one of the latest global disclosure regulations revolutionizing ESG reporting.

### Explore executive insights

- Identify the key focus areas of your colleagues.

## Follow us

## Get in touch

By submitting your email address, you acknowledge that you have read the  and that you consent to our processing data in accordance with the Privacy Statement (including international transfers). If you change your mind at any time about wishing to receive the information from us, you can send us an email message using the  page.
```