Most top company executives are bracing for a crisis in the next three years and say that it’s no longer a question of if, but a question of when they will be hit.
According to a survey conducted by PwC and published on Thursday, almost a third of global chief executive officers questioned anticipate to have to deal with more than one crisis in the next three years.
A crisis is defined as when one or more triggers or stress events significantly impact or threaten the continuity of ‘business as usual’ at a company.
“Our findings suggest that crisis management is very much on the CEO agenda,” says Melanie Butler, a UK partner at PwC.
“It’s clear that for the foreseeable future the only certainty is uncertainty with continued geo-political turmoil, sluggish global growth and fluctuating currencies.”
Of the 164 global CEOs questioned for the survey, two-thirds said that they had experienced at least one crisis in the past three years, over half said that they had gone through two or more and 15 per cent say that they had been hit by five or more crises in that time.
Global economic uncertainty was cited as the biggest threat to business, followed by concerns over increased regulation, with exchange rate volatility and geopolitical upheaval also of major concern.
