Findings from the first Deloitte global survey of private sector leaders indicate that despite global uncertainty, private company leaders are extremely optimistic about business growth and are actively investing in new technologies and talented, skilled individuals in order to stay ahead of their competitors.
The survey included almost 1900 private company leaders across 30 countries and the findings reveal that 67% of executives believe that revenues will rise in the year ahead and that the majority also believe that profits, productivity and capital investment will go up.
Regions poised for growth
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, all 45 of its countries are set to grow their economies this year and executives across three major regions – the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and the Asia Pacific are all confident their companies will see significant growth during the next two years.
The growing demand for skilled talent
16% of the respondents to the Deloitte survey listed “strengthening their management team” as one of their top growth strategies for 2018 – this was over and above traditional growth priorities including developing new products and growing existing markets.
As global growth looks to accelerate, companies find themselves competing to hire new workers in order to meet the growing demand for skilled talent. Companies that are able to attract global workers with large financial perks are often seen to be at an advantage over their smaller rivals. The counter- argument is that smaller private companies offer job seekers benefits that larger public companies are unable to match including flexible working hours, a better work/life balance and greater access to senior leaders and mentors.
Global investment in people
On a global scale, private companies reported desires to increase their full-time employees by 31% and their recruiting by 26%. For expats looking to move abroad within their existing companies, mergers and acquisitions look like an increasingly likely prospect as they are being viewed as a key driver for growth. In 2018, 26% of companies say they expect to be acquired and see it as a potent tool to accelerate growth.
The demand for IT intelligence
Expats with skills in IT are likely to be in high demand as survey respondents reported that the major technology trends likely to have a significant impact on their respective businesses over the next 12 months include cyber intelligence, analytics, cloud infrastructure, mobile devices and big data. In terms of investment priorities, 405 of companies put cloud computing/software as a service and customer relationship management at the top of their lists, followed by data analytics, business intelligence and the automation of business processes.
Widen your career horizons
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