PwC’s CEO Survey: the Hungarian results

PwC Hungary – in partnership with the Hungarian Association of Employers and Industrialists (MGYOSZ) – asked the opinion of Hungarian CEOs for the sixth time about domestic and international trends, the situation of their company and other issues. PwC’s experts interviewed the chief executives of 186 Hungarian companies between October and December 2016. PwC Hungary CEO Nick Kós told: what Hungarian CEOs said was very much in line with the answers of their international counterparts.

Hungarian CEOs hope that their company will produce growth in the next 12 months, but they are less optimistic about the prosperity of the Hungarian (56 percent predicted growth) and the international (39 percent envisaged growth) economy. As for target markets, the USA and China are becoming more important, but the No.1 is still Germany. Decision-makers see the biggest potential in innovation and human resource development. However, 92 percent of chief executives said the biggest obstacle to growth is the lack of quality workforce. Still, 89 percent of CEOs reckon that their sales will grow in the next 1-year period.

The heads of financial institutions and of companies from the automotive industry were stressing the importance of innovation the most, while human resource development was mentioned most often by CEOs from the retail trade, technology and telecommunications sectors. Overregulation is still a problem in the daily work of businesses. Anita Mekler, a partner of PwC’s tax and legal advisory division called attention to how big a problem the lack of quality workforce is – even more so because in the next 12 months companies plan to employ more people. Only 13 percent of business plan to operate with fewer employees than they do now.

CEOs told that when recruiting workers, the most important skills they are looking for is problem solving, cooperation and the ability to adapt. Ms Mekler explained that in addition to expertise, those skills are very important which can’t be ‘replaced’ with machines. Hungarian decision-makers also revealed that it is most difficult to find workers with leadership skills, and workers who are creative and innovative.

Seeing the rapid technological development of the last few years, CEOs expect a much bigger influence of technological development on market competition than they did 3 years ago when 62 percent of respondents claimed this. Chief executives see themselves as managers with good digital skills and this manifests in their media consumption habits too. CEOs opine that in the next 5 years the biggest danger will be IT services going wrong or stopping. When asked what will reduce trust in their industry, 73 percent said risks related to cyber attacks and managing personal data, and 72 percent mentioned dangers emerging form social media use.

Dr Péter Futó, the president of MGYOSZ told: a few years ago everything in the world economy depended on the price of oil. Back then it seemed that the world’s oil reserves were only enough for a few more decades. Thanks to the development in tight oil extraction technology, now hydrocarbon reserves are enough for at least 200 years. All in all, we can say that technological development has an influence even on the future of humanity.