CEOs’ 2007 agenda

The second of the ‘CEO Profile’ survey, the first of which was realized last year, has been completed with the assistance of the Koç Bilgi Group. The survey, which covered the members of the CEO Club, produced some significant results in terms of the business world’s agenda for 2007. According to the survey, the business community sees China as a threat and Russia as an opportunity. The CEOS believe that the two important elements which will impact global markets in the months ahead will be technological change and increasing competition. Things will go well in Turkey. Energy, banking and telecommunications will continue to be the star sectors, while the rise of Istanbul, Gaziantep, Izmir and Bursa will continue.

When he came to Turkey, Hans Joachim Korber, CEO of the German Metro Group, said: “Turkey was always on our investment agenda. The quicker you help us to secure the land, the bigger a share you will get from our annual investment budget of 3 billion Euro.” Just like Hans Joachim Korber’s agenda, a CEO’s agenda has targets and strategies for the company in many areas from investments to growth, technology and human resources. For this reason there is always a lot of interest in CEOs’ agendas. Just their agendas? Everything related to the CEOs is followed closely, from their worldviews to their perceptions of risk, style of management and what they think about economic developments. Topics of interest extend to the areas in which they previously worked and even their hobbies. In 2005 Capital and Ekonomist magazines noticed this interest and established the CEO Club. The CEO Club’s first activity was the “CEO Profile|” survey, the first of which was conducted in 206.

How do they look at the world?

This year we conducted the second of these surveys which we plan to continue and make into a tradition. The study was supported by the Koç Bilgi Group.

A total of 152 of the 261 members of the club participated in the “CEO Profile 2007”. The survey was conducted over the Internet by sending members a survey form with 23 questions. The CEOs used their passwords to complete the forms and return them to us. The survey forms were analysed by our research team and produced some very significant results. These results cover a broad range of issues from leaders’ risk perceptions to their priorities, views about technology, attitudes towards mergers and acquisitions and reveal the business community’s agenda for 2007.

In order to determine how they looked at the world we asked the leaders a number of different questions. One of these was to ask them which countries they saw as posing a risk for their companies. When we analysed the results, we saw that 39 percent thought China posed a future threat. Last year the figure was 40.8 percent. We can see that this means that China is still seen as a threat. This year Iraq ranked second in terms of the countries which are seen as posing a threat. The events in Iraq over the last year have increased the threat perception regarding this country.

When asked which countries they saw as opportunities, the country which received the highest proportion of the leaders’ votes was Russia, which was also in the leaders’ sights last year. The EU came second, the same as last year. These two were followed by Romania and Iran, both of whose points increased.

What will be the three most important factors changing global markets? According to the CEOs, technological change ranks first. The second factor that will have a profound impact is competition, which is increasing by the day. Pressure from well-informed consumers will also affect the markets.

In response to the question about three global risks that their companies faced, the CEOs ranked global instability first. Last year global instability was in the lower reaches of the top ten but this year it came top. The CEOS also saw regional instability and wars as significant risks. Underlying these concerns were fears concerning the Middle East.

The priorities on their agendas
The first of the three strategic priorities that will occupy a place on the CEOs’ agendas was the necessity of innovation. This was followed by increasing customer satisfaction and improving operational efficiency.

As happened last year, 31.9 percent of the CEOs were considering outsourcing some of their business in order to improve performance and productivity. Reducing the workforce, which in 2006 ranked third, seems to have increased in importance this year.

Over the next year the leaders plan to source their companies capital requirements predominantly from the development of new products and services. In second place came creating new customer markets. The alternatives included establishing good relations with existing customers and entering new countries and regional markets.

When it came to the factors to which CEOS would give priority in order to grow, 24.9 percent of those who participated in the survey said that they would give priority to formulating a strategy. The CEOs’ priorities also included encouraging innovation and managing personal and corporate culture.

Mergers and acquisitions were on the agendas of 47.9 percent of the CEOs. 23.4 percent said that they had received offers and held negotiations with foreigners. While 21.9 percent said that they had held negotiations with a view to making an acquisition. A total of 20.3 percent said that they were continuing to hold negotiations with foreigners and 15.6 percent said that they were continuing to look to buy a brand or a company.

Ebru Firat
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