75% of region’s CEOs plan to hire this year: Survey

Middle East CEOs are more confident about growth prospects compared with their counterparts in the rest of the world, according PricewaterhouseCoopers’ (PwC) 16th Annual Global CEO Survey.

And the bosses are putting their money where their mouth is. Three out of four Middle East CEOs surveyed by the global agency see an increase in employment opportunities within their firms this year.

According to the survey, 75 per cent of Middle East CEOs expressed intent to boost headcount in the coming year, where only 6 per cent anticipate job reductions, as opposed to 23 per cent globally.

This relative optimism is expressed both in terms of confidence about their own companies’ growth and the outlook for wider economic growth.

The survey highlights that they are more likely to see opportunities for organic growth in their home markets than CEOs elsewhere in the world but they are also significantly more likely to launch new ‘go abroad’ strategies.

This optimism in part reflects the strengths that arise from the region’s natural resource base, as well as the growing maturity of its regional infrastructure and the increasing diversity of its business and economic mix.

Such a growth outlook brings challenges. Middle East CEOs are putting a much stronger emphasis on strengthening their companies’ operational effectiveness, including the roll-out of new technology and addressing talent gaps, than their global CEO peers.

In addition, they are more likely to be looking to embark new acquisitions, joint ventures and strategic alliances. Some of the findings do point to possible concerns about competitiveness. Middle East CEOs, for example, appear to be putting less emphasis on new product and service development than their global counterparts.

Middle East CEOs are also expecting a major employment headcount increase with over two-thirds expecting a 5 per cent or more raise.

Forty-four per cent of Middle East CEOs see organic domestic growth as a primary driver in 2013. Alternatively, 25 per cent view growth stemming from new operations in foreign markets and 13 percent from new mergers and acquisitions (M&A), joint ventures or strategic alliances.

Thirty-eight per cent of Middle East CEOs count M&A and strategic alliances among the top investment priorities for their companies in the upcoming 12 months. A majority (73 per cent) target those M&As and alliances in their own region, followed by 36 per cent for Africa, 27 per cent for South-East Asia, and 27 per cent for Western Europe.

“Middle East CEOs are acknowledging the challenges present and are adding a stronger emphasis on strengthening their companies’ operational effectiveness, including investing in roll out of new technologies and addressing talent gaps.

According to our findings, CEOs today have clearly learned from their experiences, where 25 per cent of the Middle East CEOs plan in the coming 12 months to have direct control of activities by in-sourcing business processes, which would ultimately give them greater resilience in the event of disruption,” said Warwick Hunt, PwC Middle East senior partner.

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