By John Romeo
I’ve spent a lot of time recently speaking with CEOs about the actions they are taking in today’s volatile environment, and how the demands of the job have evolved. While many of them question whether they are driving change quickly enough, not one wished they had gone more slowly.
It is tempting to see this challenge as something new, a consequence of rapid change in geopolitics, technology, markets, and competition. But in fact, we’ve been here before. As management guru Peter Drucker observed amid an earlier wave of disruption sparked by the internet, “One cannot manage change. One can only be ahead of it.” Unless it is seen as the organization’s task to lead change, it will not survive.
The CEO’s role is unique, as Drucker also noted, because that person serves as the link between the outside world and the inside of the organization.
The outside is where results are created — in markets, with customers, through competition. The inside is where decisions are taken and resources are deployed — capital, people, and technology. Only the CEO truly spans both domains across the breadth of a company’s operations, continuously interpreting what is happening outside and ensuring the organization responds in a way that produces results.
That has always been true. What has changed is the intensity of the task. The pace of change is faster. The forces driving it are more interconnected. Decisions in one area increasingly affect outcomes in another. Geopolitics influences supply chains. Technology reshapes cost structures and capabilities. Markets reprice expectations quickly.
Our latest CEO Agenda, which is based on responses from more than 400 chief executives around the world, reflects this pressure. Boards are becoming more involved, and planning horizons are shortening, as CEOs are pushed to deliver results more quickly in an environment that is harder to read. The CEO’s task is to decide what matters most and, just as important, what does not.
In complex environments, organizations tend to turn inward — more meetings, more alignment, more process. But inward focus is the enemy of growth. Value is created outside the organization — with customers and in markets. Maintaining a clear line of sight to the outside and ensuring the organization is oriented around it is not just important for a CEO, it is the job.
Clarity of strategy is also more critical than ever. While it may be tempting to adjust direction in response to volatility, strategy cannot be constantly reset. In an uncertain world, it is more important than ever to be crystal clear about what the organization offers to its customers, why it matters, and how it does so better than competitors. Without that clarity, activity increases but effectiveness does not.
This is where the link between the outside and the inside becomes real. The CEO’s role is not just to interpret change but to anchor the organization, ensuring that what happens internally remains tightly aligned with what is happening in the market.
Each generation faces its own version of uncertainty and complexity. What has not changed is the bottom line: CEOs cannot control events, but they remain accountable for how the organization responds to them.
Leadership is not about managing change. It means being able to change faster than everything around you, ensuring the organization delivers results where they matter — on the outside.
From geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty to the rise of artificial intelligence and disruptive business models, chief executives face a complex and fast-changing competitive landscape. They are meeting the challenges head on with speed and ambition, seeing more opportunities than threats in this environment.
These findings come from a new survey of 415 chief executives of public and private companies around the world conducted by the Oliver Wyman Forum and the New York Stock Exchange. It’s the most extensive survey of its kind, with the public companies alone accounting for roughly 10% of global market capitalization.
The CEOs agree that those who move swiftly and boldly to exploit today’s unprecedented disruption will prevail. That requires leaders to simultaneously act across multiple areas — from AI and M&A to governance and talent — rather than addressing priorities one by one.
Six items that top the CEO agenda:
- Disruption provides the best opportunity to go on offense. Nearly two-thirds of CEOs see today’s volatile competitive environment as an opportunity to drive growth. They are looking to outmaneuver rivals, not just weather the storm.
- Growth remains the paramount objective, but the model is shifting. Two-thirds of CEOs cite a growth lever, such as organic investment, as their No. 1 goal, while nearly as many make cost management a top three goal. That suggests they view efficiency as a financing tool for capitalizing on disruption, not a defensive response to it.
- M&A is the overwhelmingly preferred tactic, scale and speed the objectives. Ninety-four percent of CEOs plan deals in the next year or two. Pursuing industry consolidation is the most popular goal, while large companies see deals as a quick way to acquire new capabilities and intellectual capital.
- The AI gap between leaders and laggards is widening. Two-thirds of companies are still in planning or pilot mode, and 53% say it’s too early to assess ROI. Yet firms scaling AI across multiple use cases report roughly twice as much value (cost savings and revenue gains) as others.
- AI is turning the traditional talent pyramid into a middle-heavy diamond. The share of companies shifting away from junior roles has more than doubled in the past year, while 33% are tilting toward more midlevel roles. Forty-five percent are keeping headcount flat while 29% are cutting it by more than 5%.
- Planning horizons are compressing as board scrutiny intensifies. CEOs devote half their planning time to horizons of less than one year, up from 43% in 2025. And nearly all respondents (96%) reported increased board involvement in at least one area, with strategy and governance topping the list (61%) followed by executive performance and succession (35%).
Solutions vary by company size and location
Although their challenges are remarkably universal, the approaches CEOs are taking vary by company size, sector, and geography.
Small and midsize companies, facing consolidation pressure from larger rivals, are pursuing big, transformative M&A deals at a higher rate than large companies. And size can confer advantages in AI, with large companies deploying AI at scale for operational efficiency and customer service at roughly double the rate of small companies.
In the Asia-Pacific region, 47% of companies qualify as AI deployment leaders, ahead of North America (37%) and Europe (30%). North America remains the most growth-oriented region while European CEOs are most likely to be shrinking the workforce and pursuing M&A for geographic expansion.
Whatever their situation or location, though, the survey findings suggest that the CEOs best positioned to thrive today are combining urgency with thoughtfulness: moving fast on AI and M&A even as they take the long view on talent, leadership continuity, and redesigning work. They are converting disruption and speed into performance without creating fragility.
The CEOs who get that balance right will do more than keep pace; they'll shape what comes next.
Healthcare systems around the world need a technology reboot to prevent aging populations, labor shortages, and persistent cost inflation from threatening access to and affordability of care, according to a new report from Oliver Wyman.
On current trends, global health spending could nearly double by 2040, to $23.1 trillion from $11.8 trillion today. Much of this surge could be avoided if systems take advantage of a once-in-a-generation opportunity to boost productivity by investing in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and eventually quantum technologies, according to the report’s authors, Oliver Wyman Partner Oliver Eitelwein and David B. Duong, MD, Director of the Global Primary Health Care program at Harvard Medical School.
This would allow the sector to redesign workflows, scale technology-enabled care, and reduce administrative friction, generating systemwide productivity gains without reducing access or the quality of care.
The most immediate help would come from AI, which already is being used to manage workflows across clinical, administrative, and operational domains. Robotics also have been introduced through specialist applications currently deployed in everything from surgical support to payment processing. The next stage will be humanoid robots working side-by-side with human employees, eventually taking over routine tasks so staff can focus more on direct human care.
Quantum technologies will not begin having significant impact until around 2035, but they can potentially strengthen cybersecurity and unlock new diagnostic sensing capabilities.
The amount of savings will depend on how much the industry embraces these new technologies. Incremental investment could produce annual productivity gains of as much as $1.1 trillion by 2040, the report contends, while a more aggressive approach could garner nearly five times as much.
The challenge to achieving those savings is more institutional than technological. It requires adequate and timely investment, workforce training, changes in reimbursement systems to incentivize the use of automated strategies, and adaptive regulation that allows AI and connected devices to learn after deployment.
The goal is to remove administrative burdens, augment clinical judgment, and provide clinical care workers more time with patients — enhancing genuine human connection where it matters most.
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