Report: Sustainability is a top 10 priority for CEOs this year

A recent survey of CEOs and senior executives conducted by Gartner, Inc. found significant shifts in their thinking about people, purpose, price and productivity in 2022, particularly around sustainability, workforce issues and inflation.

Among the key insights, artificial intelligence (AI) is now being reported as the most impactful new technology by CEOs for the third year in a row. Conversely, 63% of CEOs see the Metaverse as either not applicable or very unlikely as a key technology for their company.

Additionally, for the first time in the survey’s history, CEOs placed environmental sustainability in their top 10 strategic business priorities, ranking 8th companies win. Sustainability also appears as a competitive differentiator for CEOs in 2022 and 2023, at the same level as brand trust among respondents.

Human resources issues such as talent retention moved to the forefront of CEOs for the second year in a row, just behind technology-related issues such as digitization and cybersecurity and well ahead of financial issues such as profitability and cash flow.

Regarding inflation, 62% of CEOs see overall price inflation as an ongoing or long-term problem. Their most common response to inflation is price increases (51% of respondents) rather than responding with productivity and efficiency (22% of respondents).

Overall, CEO perspectives have shifted significantly in 2022, impacted by the ongoing impact of the pandemic and, more recently, the Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, the ambition of CEOs in the digital business continues to rise, unchecked by the pandemic and the associated crises.

The annual Gartner 2022 CEO and Senior Business Executive Survey was conducted between July 2021 and December 2021 among over 400 CEOs and other senior business executives across North America, EMEA and APAC across a range of industries, revenue streams and company sizes.

Read Gartner’s full report.