The top five challenges for business leaders in 2023
KPMG has released their annual ‘Keeping us up at night’ report, highlighting the five most-pressing issues facing business leaders in 2023.
The organisation surveyed over 400 CEOs and board members in Australia to identify the key economic and financial challenges of 2023.
More than 75% of survey respondents identified talent acquisition as the biggest concern for organisations navigating the year ahead.
1. Talent acquisition and retention
Staff shortages over the last 12 months, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrated the rising issue of acquiring, retaining and upskilling talent.
With 77% of respondents recognising talent acquisition as the biggest challenge of this year, 61% also identified the issue as the most-pressing concern for them over the next three to five years' time.
Dorothy Hisgrove, managing partner at KPMG Australia, commented that individuals were focused less on a position’s salary and more on factors such as workplace flexibility, team culture and values alignment.
2. Digital transformation and optimisation
Extracting value from digital transformation was the second-largest challenge of 2023 at 46%, as well as 43% in three to five years time.
“While digital transformation propels cloud adoption and usage forward, it also puts institutions and businesses at greater cyber risk,” explained Martijn Verbree, partner at KPMG.
3. Cybersecurity threats
Amidst recent examples of cyber vulnerability, concerns surrounding data breaches and cybersecurity were identified by 40% of those surveyed.
KPMG’s report encouraged organisations to re-evaluate their collection, storage and security of sensitive data in the event of a cyberattack.
4. Evolving regulatory processes
Managing the evolution of regulatory processes was identified as a challenge by over one-third of respondents.
The issue was also recognised as a top five challenge in three to five years, echoed by the changes and reforms felt throughout financial regulation.
5. Greater business agility to meet challenges
Having greater flexibility in a business to maximise opportunities and mitigate challenges was the final issue for 35% of business leaders surveyed.
The report stated that respondents were expecting choppier market conditions over the next 12 months, which meant an organisation’s resilience would become more important than medium-term revenue growth.
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Jasmine Siljic
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