Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: At a time the second Covid-19 wave is wreaking havoc across India and other countries, 70 percent of Chief Executive Officers (CEOs), despite considering the pandemic as the uppermost threat to growth, see revenue growth in the financial year 2021-22.
At least 93 percent of them are willing to invest in digital transformation while 88 percent are optimistic about global economic growth, according to an India Inc. Outlook poll conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the world’s second-largest professional services network.
The annual poll came on Wednesday at a time when the second pandemic wave is threatening to upend economic activity again. It revealed that the CEOs in India are confident about growing their businesses in FY22.
PwC’s exercise showed that 70 percent of the 60 Indian CEOs are confident about clocking revenue growth in 2021-22. The report follows the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) growth projections for India.
The IMF’s January 2021 World Economic Outlook projected India’s economy to grow 11.5 percent in 2021, making it the only major economy with a double-digit growth forecast, said PwC. At least 88 percent of CEOs expect the global economy to improve in 12 months.
According to Fitch Ratings, global Gross Domestic Product (GDP) declined 3.4 percent in 2020. The Covid-19 pandemic remains the foremost threat to growth, the CEOs said.
Seven out of 10 consider the pandemic as the uppermost threat to growth. And 53 percent of CEOs said uncertain economic growth is among the top threats to their companies.
According to them, cyber-attacks were the second biggest threat to growth. At least 62 percent of CEOs consider this as a major challenge, which is now also a boardroom agenda for 52 percent of CEOs’ strategic risk management, alongside speed of technological change, availability of key skills, and changing consumer behavior, PwC said.
The CEOs said digital transformation is integral to build ‘fit-for-future organizations’ and driving business growth.
Large technology-led transformation projects are being undertaken to propel automation and digitization in key business areas. This, in turn, demands digital up-skilling of the workforce to steer the ‘future of work’ that at times may be antithetical to leadership decisions.
The survey found 93 percent of Indian CEOs willing to invest more in digital transformation in nearly all the sectors: manufacturing, retail and consumer, financial services, education, and healthcare.
Eighty-eight percent would like to simultaneously focus on digitizing their risk management functions and build a cyber-resilient infrastructure that supports growth. According to them, focusing on productivity, automation, and technology will be key to sustain business growth in the new post-Covid world.
Forty-two percent of CEOs are now focusing on productivity through automation and technology as a workforce strategy to make the greatest impact on their organization’s competitiveness, while 35 percent are focused on the health and well-being of the workforce.
A majority of CEOs see the US (52 percent) as its largest export-growth market. For Indian CEOs, the top territories of growth after the US are the UK (25 percent), China (15 percent), Bangladesh (12 percent), Germany (12 percent), and the UAE (12 percent). It believes the strong economic performance of the US—on the back of a large stimulus and less disruptive decision-making—will provide an additional boost to the exporting companies.
